HoREA continues to propose removing the regulation on paying additional land use fees

HoREA Chairman Le Hoang Chau highly appreciated the new points of the draft, notably Clause 34, Article 79, allowing the State to reclaim the remaining land if the investor has agreed on 75% of the area or number of land users in the socio-economic development project.

Over the years, many projects have fallen into a state of "unfinished" because they cannot negotiate the remaining land. There are many cases where investors have reached an agreement of over 75% (even over 95% of the land area) or have reached an agreement with over 75% of the land users, but still cannot reach an agreement to clear the remaining area, so investors cannot implement the project, are buried, land is wasted, and cannot be put into use.

In addition, HoREA highly appreciates the addition of Articles 159 and 160 of the 2024 Land Law on the 5-year periodic land price list, and at the same time stipulates the land price adjustment coefficient applicable from January 1 every year. If necessary, the provincial People's Committee has the right to decide to adjust the coefficient during the year or for each area to apply.

However, HoREA believes that only allowing the application of the land price list to calculate compensation when the State reclaims land is not enough, but it is necessary to allow it to be applied even in cases where investors advance compensation, support, and resettlement funds according to agreements or have land use rights. At that time, the land price is determined according to the price list and the adjustment coefficient at the time of receiving the transfer of rights, and the state budget needs to be refunded in the form of deduction from land use fees and land rents payable.

Another notable issue is that HoREA proposed to retain some of the contents that appeared in the draft on July 28, 2025 but were withdrawn from the new version.

Including amending Clauses 1, 3, 6, Article 127 (Clause 31 of the old draft) to allow investors to receive the right to use residential land or other types of land to implement commercial housing projects. HoREA believes that if not legalized, it will create a "legal space", limiting fair land access.

In addition, HoREA proposed that the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment consider retaining the content of Clause 62, Article 1 of the draft dated July 28, 2025, in which it amended and supplemented Point d, Clause 2, Article 257 of the 2024 Land Law, and proposed to abolish unreasonable regulations on the amount of additional fees that land users must pay for the period not yet calculated for land use fees and land rents.

HoREA believes that the current draft no longer has this proposal, which will lead to the consequences of not being able to remove obstacles and difficulties for projects using land when state agencies are slow to issue decisions on land use fees, land rent or supplementary decisions.

According to Point d, Clause 2, Article 257 of the 2024 Land Law, Clause 1, Article 50 and Clause 9, Article 51 of Decree 103/2024/ND-CP, the amount of money that land users must pay supplementally for the period not yet included in land use fees and land rent is calculated at a rate of 5.4%/year on the land use fee and land rent payable according to regulations. This means that additional payment becomes a new and heavier collection, while the previous Land Laws 1993, 2003, 2013 have never regulated it.