(PLO)- The revised draft Land Law needs to clarify clearly and specifically the cases of land expropriation for socio-economic development for national and public interests.
At a recent meeting on the draft revised Land Law, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha said that the drafting agency would amend all regulations on land acquisition for socio-economic development for the national interest. home, public; Adjustment so that the compensation and support when the State recovers land is democratic, objective, fair and public…
It is not clear what specific content will be added or removed in the upcoming draft, but let’s see what has been and is happening from the above comments of the deputy prime minister.
It is noteworthy that out of more than 11 million comments on the bill held by a large number of people in the past time, the number of comments on compensation, support and resettlement accounted for the highest percentage; The number of opinions on land recovery and requisition ranked third.
This ranking is similar to the number of complaints about land which is always quite high over the years. The Government’s report to the National Assembly said that before the 2013 Land Law, the complaint rate was 79%, from 2014 to 2018 it was 69%. The content of people’s complaints mainly focused on land prices, compensation plans and support when the State recovers land.
With the role of the representative of the owner and unified management, the State has many statutory reasons to recover land that people are only given the right to use. Simultaneously with land acquisition is compensation, support, and resettlement, which, according to the “speakable numbers” mentioned above, it is clear that there are too many things to think about. Therefore, although the government often commits that “people whose land is recovered will have a place to live, income and living conditions equal to or better than the old place” (but what is “better”) there is no specific criteria. However, for the majority of people, having their land recovered is always an unfortunate event that cannot be avoided because it is accompanied by losses and disturbances that are not easy to compensate or overcome.
From this fact, it is necessary to carefully consider cases where the State is entitled to recover land. There is an adjustment that many people do not know why, that is, the draft that was released for comment has increased the cases of land acquisition for socio-economic development for national and public benefits. In which, there are urban projects, commercial housing projects, and rural residential projects, which are also three types of projects in which businesses are entitled to negotiate with people to have land for projects.
It turns out that for the same type of business project, sometimes people are only compensated by the State at a fixed price, sometimes paid by businesses at the right price to buy and sell!?
Regarding the land compensation price, people used to think that for compensation by the State, the price is low, and the compensation for enterprises is the market price; meanwhile, according to the Land Law, the compensation price for that land is also based on the market price.
It is also worth mentioning that the State does not only have the land compensation price which is quite far from the negotiated price of enterprises. There is also a land price list lower than the compensation price set by the State to collect taxes, land use fees, etc., which is also considered by the State to be the market price (!?).
Then, before these two volatile market prices, HCMC had to issue a land price adjustment coefficient calculated by area to have a unit price dozens of times higher to apply to some financial obligations ( for the land area outside the quota, the starting price at land auction…). The People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City has also issued the land price adjustment coefficient (K coefficient) to prepare the compensation, support and resettlement plan and send it to the people whose land is recovered.
After all, are the two different types of land prices that the State always considers the market price really the market price?
Returning to the comments stated by Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, perhaps the draft revised Land Law needs to clarify clearly and specifically the cases of land acquisition for socio-economic development for the benefit of the people. national and public interest. The pricing method will be modified to quickly have a fair market price. Surely this price must be based on the actual transaction price that people are required to declare correctly with the State so that they will not suffer losses in the future when their land is recovered. If so, the number of complaints in this area will also be minimized. It is also the top concern of the people in this revision of the Land Law.
Lawyer NGUYEN THI THU TAM, Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association