Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Bui Xuan Cuong has just signed a decision to amend and supplement the land lease decision, converting from lease to the allocation of more than 96% of the land area to Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens One Member Co., Ltd.
According to the new decision, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee will allocate more than 164,702m2 of public land (not for business purposes) to the Zoo and Botanical Gardens for management and use in the maintenance and upkeep of green parks, rare plant and animal conservation and performing educational and scientific research functions.
The remaining area, about 5,857m2, will continue to be leased to serve business activities such as parking lots, food areas, beverage stalls, game areas and offices.
The land use term is 50 years, calculated from December 4, 2014. Other contents of Decision No. 5918/QD-UBND dated December 4, 2014 of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee are still effective.
In the decision, the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City also assigned Region 2 Tax Department to identify, collect and collect the lack of land rent (if any) until the date of signing this Decision and identify and collect land rent from the date of signing this Decision as prescribed. This decision aims to help the Zoo and Botanical Gardens resolve the land rent up to nearly 800 billion dong.
It is known that Saigon Zoo is a 100% state-owned company under the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee. In 2010, this unit changed to LLC. In December 2014, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee issued Decision No. 5918 to the Zoo and Botanical Gardens to lease 158,117 m2 of land for public purposes, for a term of 50 years, with annual rental payments.
Regarding the first stable 5-year cyclical land rental price from December 4, 2014 to December 3, 2019, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment has not determined and has not proposed for the Department of Finance to appraise and submit to the Ho Chi Minh City Land Valuation Council for consideration and submission to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee for decision.
Therefore, the District 1 Tax Department has not issued a notice of land rent collection for the 5-year period of payment to the state budget according to regulations, because there is not enough basis to determine the land rental unit price. From 2021 onwards, District 1 Tax Department issued a decision to collect land use fees at a unit price of more than VND 1,000,000/m2.
The total amount of land rent that the Zoo and Botanical Gardens must pay annually is 163 billion VND. As of October 2024, the land rent owed by the Zoo and Botanical Gardens is VND 864 billion, of which the overdue amount to be enforced for tax debt enforcement is more than VND 787 billion.
According to the 2024 Land Law, land used for public purposes includes land for entertainment, recreation, and community activities. According to Decree 102 of 2024, guiding the Land Law, land for construction of works or without works but is mainly identified as for public entertainment activities, including parks, flower gardens, beaches and areas for other public entertainment.
Accordingly, the Land Law also stipulates that land for construction of public works with business purposes is subject to land lease.
The land management agency has signed a land lease contract with Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens, the leased area is the entire campus of nearly 16 hectares of land, the type of land is land for construction of public works with business. However, in reality, land used for business by the Zoo and Botanical Gardens accounts for a very small proportion of the entire land.
Therefore, there have been many opinions that if the entire area is considered public land for business, it will be disadvantageous for this enterprise.
