Concept of agricultural land
According to the provisions of Clause 2, Article 9 of the 2024 Land Law, agricultural land includes the following types of land: Land for growing annual crops including: Land for growing rice, land for growing other annual crops; Land for growing perennial crops; Forestry land including: Land for special-use forests, protective forests, production forests; Land for aquaculture; Land for concentrated livestock farming; Land for salt production; Other agricultural land.
Acts of encroachment and occupation of agricultural land
Current legal documents do not have specific regulations on the act of encroaching on and occupying agricultural land. However, it can be understood that land encroachment includes two acts: land encroachment and land occupation.
Accordingly, land encroachment is an act showing signs of moving the boundary markers and boundaries of a land plot without permission from the competent authority or the legal user of the encroached land area in order to occupy and expand the land use area (according to Clause 31, Article 3 of the 2024 Land Law).
Land occupation is the act of using land managed by the State without permission from the competent State land agency or from the legal land user (according to Clause 9, Article 3 of the 2024 Land Law).
Currently, those who encroach on agricultural land will be punished according to the provisions of Article 13 of Decree 123/2024/ND-CP.
Penalties for encroachment on agricultural land
* Administrative sanctions
According to Article 13 of Decree 123/2024/ND-CP, those who encroach on agricultural land will be fined as follows:
Thus, according to regulations, the act of encroaching on agricultural land can be fined from 3 to 400 million VND for individuals who violate the law. The fine will be determined based on the type of land, area and area of encroached land according to regulations.
* Criminal penalties
In addition to being administratively sanctioned with the above fine, violators may also be prosecuted for criminal liability according to the provisions of Article 228 of the 2015 Penal Code No. 100/2015/QH13, amended and supplemented in 2017 on the Crime of violating regulations on land use as follows:
- For those who have been administratively sanctioned or convicted but still re-offend: fine from 50 - 500 million VND, non-custodial reform for up to 3 years or imprisonment from 6 months to 3 years.
- For those who commit organized crimes, commit crimes two or more times or commit dangerous recidivism, they will be fined from 500 million to 2 billion VND or imprisoned from 2 to 7 years.
Thus, violators may be subject to a penalty of up to 7 years in prison and a maximum fine of 2 billion VND for "Violating regulations on land use".
