Digital transformation of land: Proposal to issue electronic land ownership certificates integrated with citizen identification cards.

According to Dr. Pham Viet Thuan, Director of the Institute of Resource and Environmental Economics of Ho Chi Minh City, in the context of digital transformation, digitizing land ownership certificates is an inevitable trend to modernize land management and reduce administrative procedures.

The Institute proposed integrating land ownership certificate information with citizen identification cards, where land parcels and map sheets would be identified and linked to the personal data of land users. This solution is expected to not only help management agencies easily look up and establish ownership rights but also prevent document forgery. Furthermore, this database will serve as a foundation for many fields such as planning, construction, and tax collection, aligning with the direction of the 2024 Land Law on building a national land information system and database.

However, the Institute also expressed concern about the sharp increase in land use fees after the 2024 Land Law came into effect. Specifically, the fees for changing land use purposes for households and individuals are now many times higher than before, making people hesitant to carry out the conversion procedures. In some areas, land use fees have been recorded as nearly 20 times higher than the rates calculated under the 2013 Land Law.

Dr. Thuan believes the cause lies in the calculation formula in Decree 103 (which regulates the calculation of land use fees for cases where land was allocated or leased before August 1, 2024). He noted that several important factors, such as the percentage in the K coefficient (land price adjustment coefficient), were not applied correctly, leading to inconsistencies between the provisions. This situation has caused many localities to face difficulties in collecting budget revenue from land use fees, affecting economic growth targets, especially in the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of this year.

Based on these shortcomings, the Institute recommends that the Government review the content of Decree 103, adjust the method of calculating land use fees to be more reasonable, ensuring a balance of interests between the State and the people. At the same time, it proposes measures to create favorable conditions for the development of the real estate market and the private economy in accordance with the direction of Resolution 68.

The Certificate of Land Use Rights and Ownership of Assets Attached to Land is issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (now the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) according to a unified form and is applied nationwide to all types of land and other assets attached to land. This certificate consists of one sheet with two pages, printed on a pink lotus-colored background with a bronze drum pattern (referred to as the certificate blank), measuring 210 x 297 mm, and includes the prescribed contents.