Businesses suffer from prolonged land use fees for many years
At the conference to implement Directive 45/CT-UBND of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee on continuing to remove difficulties and obstacles for prolonged projects recently, Ms. Nguyen Nam Phuong, Chairwoman of the Member Council cum General Director of Lan Anh One Member Limited Liability Company, expressed many frustrations with the prolonged obstacles at enterprise projects in the old Ba Ria - Vung Tau (now Ho Chi Minh City), especially related to financial obligations and the determination of land use fees.
It is known that Lan Anh Company is one of the units investing in social housing and housing for low-income people in Hoa Long commune and Tam Long ward. However, despite using entirely private capital and self-negotiating compensation with people, the enterprise said it has encountered many difficulties over the past 5 years due to prolonged land unit price determination and land use fee calculation.
This business said that the land valuation process is still inadequate. There are cases where tax authorities determine financial obligations of about 24 billion VND, but because it exceeds the 20 billion VND mark, the dossier must be re-surveyed, leading to being transferred to many agencies and prolonged processing for many years.
According to the leader of Lan Anh Company, the determination of land prices is not yet close to reality. While the land value is calculated according to the surplus method, the deductible cost is applied according to the state price frame, which is much lower than the actual market price, causing disadvantages for businesses. It is known that this company currently has 4 projects facing legal obstacles, greatly affecting financial operations and implementation progress.
Need a mechanism to handle backlog projects
Mr. Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA), said that after Ho Chi Minh City announced the removal of obstacles for 838 prolonged backlog projects and called on businesses to continue reporting, up to now, 90 more prolonged backlog projects that have not been resolved have registered to participate in the program. Among these, there are projects that are clinically dead, business leaders have lost, absconded or no longer have the capacity to implement.
For example, the project of Khang Gia Company in the old Go Vap district has been handing over houses to customers for residents for decades but could not hand over pink books to customers due to many construction violations, land use fees, and the owner has passed away.
Or Gia Phu apartment building of Gia Phu Company, although the rough construction has been completed and all apartments have been sold to customers, the investor has now fled, is being hunted down, and the project is also being auctioned off by the bank.
The case of the Bac Rach Chiec project invested by Real Estate Company 5 under Saigon Real Estate Corporation, 90 ha wide, or the Binh Trung Dong urban area of Phu Nhuan Real Estate Company, 154 ha wide, has been suspended for more than 30 years, causing thousands of customers to be in dire straits because they bought land but could not build houses, even though the investors are state-owned enterprises.
According to Mr. Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of HoREA, the list of 838 land plots and projects is not just simple statistical figures but reflects a very large volume of assets being "frozen". Notably, the group of "golden land" projects belongs to group 5, which is land plots that cannot be put into use due to complex legal obstacles.
Especially for prolonged backlog projects, in case investors no longer have the capacity to implement, the head of the enterprise dies or flees, Mr. Chau proposed that Ho Chi Minh City should have a separate handling mechanism instead of letting the project stagnate for a long time.
In case the project has to be auctioned, the winning bidder will continue to implement and fulfill the responsibility of the old investor to customers (if any).For state-owned enterprises, the city must have strong sanctions to force the investor to implement the project.It is impossible to let the project be suspended forever, there must be a way out, there must be specific solutions to ensure that homebuyers are the righteous side.
According to a report by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance, the city has reviewed 838 projects, works and land areas with a total area of more than 17,000 hectares. Among these, 417 projects have been identified as having completed removing obstacles, and 421 projects are basically removed or are continuing to be handled according to instructions.
Representatives of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance said that many projects are currently facing cross-border problems between laws such as the Land Law, Housing Law and Investment Law. For example, to be approved for investment policy, businesses must have land use rights, but land allocation procedures are being blocked. For projects that have been prolonged for many years but have not identified the responsible agency or exceed the handling authority of departments and branches, businesses can propose to the Ho Chi Minh City Inspectorate, the Government Inspectorate or functional agencies to intervene to clarify.
