Regarding the sudden increase in land prices reported by Tuoi Tre Online , the Inspectorate of the Ministry of Finance has forwarded the petition of 7 enterprises in Nha Trang City and requested the People's Committee of Khanh Hoa Province to consider.

Businesses call for province's land price decision against government regulations

According to the petition of the above 7 enterprises, the People's Committee of Khanh Hoa province issued a decision regulating the land price adjustment coefficient (coefficient K) in 2021 which is not in accordance with the legal provisions in Decree No. 123/2017/ND-CP of the Government on land use fee collection, land rent collection, and water surface rent collection.

That is the regulation that “every year, the provincial People’s Committee shall prescribe the land price adjustment coefficient to be applied to the cases specified in this Decree”. At the same time, “the land price adjustment coefficient issued by the provincial People’s Committee shall be applied from January 1st every year”.

Also according to the decree, the land price adjustment coefficient must be issued annually to determine the land rental unit price to pay annual land rent according to specific cases as stipulated in that decree.

However, the decision of the People's Committee of Khanh Hoa province regulating the land price adjustment coefficient in 2021 (issued on December 31, 2020) will not take effect until January 10, 2021, 10 days later than the provisions of the above decree.

As a result, just 1 day before the Provincial People's Committee issued the above-mentioned decision, on December 30, 2020, the Khanh Hoa Provincial Tax Department issued a notice on the annual land rental price for many enterprises and applied the land price adjustment coefficient issued since 2018 (K = 4 times) to calculate land rental for the entire 5-year cycle (2020-2024) for the above-mentioned enterprises and investors.

Because the coefficient applied by the Tax Department is almost twice as high as the land price adjustment coefficient in 2021 (K = 2.4 times), the annual land rent of many businesses and investors has increased dramatically as they have complained.

The province admits the reason for the delay in issuing regulations but does not see any "correction"

According to Khanh Hoa province's report to the Ministry of Finance, up to 86 units and enterprises renting 193 plots of land and paying annual land rent were affected, land rent increased dramatically and many enterprises submitted petitions for reconsideration.

Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee explained that the decision on the land price adjustment coefficient in 2021 issued by the province on December 31, 2020 took effect 10 days later because the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents stipulates that the effective date "must not be earlier than 10 days from the date of signing and promulgation" and "must not be retroactive".

Khanh Hoa province stated that the issuance of the decision on land price adjustment coefficient in the province was delayed and interrupted due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic.

In addition to the 10-day delay in issuing the decision on land price adjustment coefficient for 2021, in 2019 the province also did not issue a decision on land price adjustment coefficient for 2020.

Meanwhile, Decree 123/2017/ND-CP of the Government stipulates: "In case at the time of determining the land rental price or adjusting the land rental price, the provincial People's Committee has not issued the land price adjustment coefficient according to regulations, the land price adjustment coefficient issued in the previous year shall be applied to determine the land rental amount payable" for the land lessee.

However, according to the announcement on annual land rent for enterprises in 2020, Khanh Hoa Provincial Tax Department did not "apply the land price adjustment coefficient issued in the previous year" (because the province did not issue it in 2019), but applied the land price adjustment coefficient issued 2 years earlier (in 2018, with K = 4 times according to the old land price list) to multiply by the price of the new land price list (higher, applied from 2020 - 2024).

In addition, when the Provincial People's Committee's decision on the land price coefficient in 2021 (K = 2.4 times) took effect from January 10, 2021, the Provincial Tax Department did not adjust or apply the above coefficient to recalculate land rent (from 2021 - 2024) for enterprises.

Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee admitted to the Ministry of Finance that "the specific land price determined by the above method is not appropriate, causing the specific land price to increase... so the land rent of enterprises increased dramatically".

However, up to now, affected businesses and investors still complain that Khanh Hoa province has not "corrected the mistake" to recalculate land rent in accordance with legal regulations for them.