Tan Dat Synthetic Trade Export-Import Ltd., Co. which implemented a project at the Dinh Tri industrial cluster without construction licence was forced to halt the construction in March 2017.

Land used wrongly, inefficiently

As of December 31, 2016, the city approved for 305 projects of organizations, households and individuals to lease land with a total area of 214.3 hectares (in and out of the industrial clusters). 

According to the municipal People’s Committee, 38 out of the 305 projects reported ineffective use of 25.2 hectares of land; 26 projects facing slow investment of 25 hectares; 45 others leasing five-hectare workshops; and 23 using 2.4 hectares of land with wrong purposes.

Particularly, some equitized State-owned enterprises have long been using land areas with commercial advantages (for renting kiosks and restaurant business) wrongly. For example, the Bac Giang Agricultural Technique and Materials Joint Stock Company has been approved to build its headquarters but 12 kiosks are being built in the first storey of the area, aiming for lease. The Bac Giang Construction No.1 Joint Stock Company is renting 15 kiosks for its employees to do construction material business. 

The kiosks are located on a land area included in a road corridor planning, which has temporarily been allocated by the State to the company to use. Meanwhile, the Bac Giang General Trading Joint Stock Company is now renting 12 kiosks and one aquatic restaurant out to households.

The appraisal of land use demand and the approval of projects are yet to have kept abreast of the reality, resulting in land use wastefulness and inefficiency. After the investment approval, the post-inspection work was inadequate, failing to detect and handle violations timely. Some organizations, households, and individuals that were allowed to lease land did not implement strictly regulations on land use and management.

The project of the Ha Anh Import-Export Joint Stock Company in Tho Xuong ward is an example. It planned to build a farm produce processing plant for export on 2,700 square meters, but in fact it constructed an office and a storehouse for trading fertilizers. 

Meanwhile, a project to develop a brick kiln using new technologies and to farm fish on nearly 21,000 square meters of the family of Hoang Van Bon in Tan My commune turned out to be two mini football playgrounds.

Among 39 organizations, households and individuals leasing workshops, only three organizations followed the preset investment goals; 36 organizations, households and individuals leased workshops out when unlicensed. Even the Minh Trung Co., Ltd, which was licensed to lease workshops, but its rent land has exceeded the area licensed, while the remaining nearly 8,000 square meters are yet to be used.

Lam Nghiep Dong Bac (East-North Forestry) One Member Limited Company manages and uses seven plots of land measuring 18,000 square meters. It rented out several of them for building restaurants, mechanics workshops and rental houses, which goes against the initial purposes. 

Truong Phat Active Coal JSC manages nearly 17,000 square meters of fallow land and has a workshop leased as a mechanics workshop. Tan Dat Synthetic Trade Export-Import Ltd., Com. is managing four projects, of which two were licensed in 2009 but land clearance has still reached deadlock. The company completed land clearance and began the construction without the permit of authorised agencies for a project in Num village, Dinh Tri commune.

The organisations, households and individuals not only used land wastefully, ineffectively and for wrong purposes, but also have yet to fulfill their financial duties such as owing land rent and water surface fees for a long time. Between 2014 and 2016, a total of 95 billion VND (4.18 million USD) worth of land lease fees were collected for the State budget.

As of December 31, 2016, more than 28.5 billion VND (1.25 million USD) worth of land lease fees was still pending, of which only over 12 billion VND is likely to be collected. 

Some enterprises have big debts, like Tan Hang Hai Trade-Services-Construction JSC (5.2 billion VND), Bac Giang House and Urban Development Investment JSC (more than 1 billion VND) and Bac Giang Synthetic Material JSC (nearly 1.2 billion VND).

Rules in land management enforced

Against the backdrop, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee instructed the Departments of Planning and Investment, and Natural Resources and Environment, the Tax Department and the municipal People’s Committee to review and punish violators. 

However, the inspection results have failed to show the reality of mass violations. Moreover, the post-inspection work remains stagnant. Several projects, with investment going at a snail’s pace for tens of years, have yet to be revoked.

Kiosks of Bac Giang Construction JSC No. 1 are rented out to sell construction materials.

Representatives from the Departments of Planning and Investment, and Natural Resources and Environment held that the Land Law 2013 remains inadequate and makes it hard for land withdrawal. Many projects could be extended following the Land Law but could be revoked in line with the Investment Law due to bottlenecks in investment process. 

The Government’s Decree on land-related administrative punishments does not prescribe punishments against a number of violations such as late use of land, late land lease fee payment, and measures to deal with consequences of illegal rent of workshops, or has contradictory points that create no ground for administrative punishments. 

Impacts of the economic downturn have caused difficulties for production and businesses activities of enterprises, households and individuals. Businesses which suffered losses, operated perfunctorily or even faced bankruptcy have to do leasebacks for small-and medium-sized enterprises which have limited financial capacity.

Dao Duy Trong, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, said the committee will closely coordinate with the province’s competent agencies to review and reevaluate the situation and demand for land and water surface lease, as well as the efficiency of land use to propose more suitable management measures. They will also increase inspection to tackle landlords using land less effectively, wastefully and for wrong purposes. They will suggest the provincial People’s Committee to drastically deal with and withdraw licences of projects which made slow investment to reinforce the observance of the land management rules.

Lam Dung