The Provincial Party Secretary once proposed to inspect and handle
Before the Bac Lieu Provincial Inspectorate officially announced the Inspection Conclusion on March 9, Bac Lieu province had many inspection teams for Toan Cau Company. Notably, the Secretary of the Bac Lieu Provincial Party Committee himself inspected and proposed handling.
On August 24, 2023, Bac Lieu Provincial Party Secretary Lu Van Hung directly inspected the operations of Vietnam Excellent Toan Cau Seafood Science and Technology Company Limited (abbreviated as Toan Cau Company). At the time of inspection, the team found that the company had used the land for the wrong purpose and was not exploiting all of the land funds, leading to a situation of land being devastated, with trees and weeds growing densely.
Bac Lieu Provincial Party Secretary Lu Van Hung and Chairman of Bac Lieu Provincial People's Committee Pham Van Thieu reminded the company's leaders and assigned relevant units to take measures to completely handle the situation of land lease but not used in accordance with the initial commitment of Toan Cau Company.
Previously, public opinion was upset that Toan Cau Company was allocated land but not put into production, subleased, and used the land for the wrong purpose for many years without being handled.
The People's Committee of Bac Lieu province has applied many preferential investment policies such as: State lease of land with large areas for a long period of time (50 years); Exemption from land rent during the basic construction period of 2 years and the first 11 years from the date the enterprise is allocated land by the state; Applying a tax rate of 10% of the profits earned in the year; Exemption from corporate income tax for 4 years from the date the enterprise starts to make a profit and receiving a 50% reduction in the next 4 years; Exemption from import tax on imported goods... At the same time, the competent authority has created all favorable conditions for the investor to complete and put the project into operation.
Despite being given many preferential conditions, Toan Cau Company has carried out many activities with signs of violations such as: Contributing capital using illegal land use rights (LUR); There are many complicated activities, violating the law, affecting local security and order...
Inspectorate discovers many violations
Concluding the inspection of land allocation, land lease, and land use at Toan Cau Company, the Bac Lieu Provincial Inspectorate discovered that this enterprise used nearly 44 hectares of land for the wrong purpose.
Toan Cau Company is a 100% foreign-owned enterprise, officially put into operation since 2004 in Com Xoai Hamlet, Hiep Thanh Commune, Bac Lieu Town (now Giong Nhan Hamlet, Hiep Thanh Commune, Bac Lieu City). Toan Cau Company was leased 2 plots of land by the People's Committee of Bac Lieu province with a total area of over 51.5 hectares, with a lease term of 50 years.
The conclusion stated that Toan Cau Company was leased by the state other agricultural land and production and business land (land for building a seed shrimp farm) but used an area of nearly 44 hectares of aquaculture land for production and business, which is not in accordance with land use purposes and is against regulations. In particular, in 2020, this enterprise signed a joint venture contract with New Hope Company, but in fact leased the land, violating Articles 6, 12 and 183 of the 2013 Land Law.
Regarding financial obligations for land, by May 31, 2024, Toan Cau Company must pay the land rent of more than 101 million VND. Due to using land for the wrong purpose, this enterprise also had to pay an additional amount of more than 2.2 billion VND...
According to the inspection conclusion, the violations at Toan Cau Company are the responsibility of the People's Committee of Hiep Thanh Commune, the People's Committee of Bac Lieu City... In which the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (at the time of inspection) did not inspect and did not monitor the land use process of Toan Cau Company according to Article 2 of Decision No. 162/QD-CT dated May 6, 2004 of the Provincial People's Committee. The Bac Lieu Provincial Tax Department determined that the amount payable to Toan Cau Company in Notice No. 1141/TB-CTBLI dated July 21, 2023 was not strict and did not comply with regulations.
The Chief Inspector of Bac Lieu province has recommended that the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee direct the Provincial Tax Department to inspect, cancel or recommend competent authorities to cancel inappropriate documents related to the recovery of land rent that has been exempted or reduced for Toan Cau Company according to the law.
The Department of Natural Resources and Environment needs to check and review the location, area, and type of land for lease according to the contract with the actual use of Toan Cau Company, to take measures to adjust and handle it in accordance with regulations. The Department of Planning and Investment inspects and supervises the project implementation situation for Toan Cau Company, and proposes handling measures according to regulations.
