It's Phong Toan market's turn in Vinh city to complain about land rental prices.
(Baonghean.vn) - Not only Coi market is being charged with unreasonable and excessive land rent, as Nghe An Newspaper reported in the article "Coi market in Vinh city is at risk of "disappearing" due to unreasonable land rent tax!" on August 17, 2023. Recently, Phong Toan market in Ha Huy Tap ward also spoke out about a similar situation.
Build a market to convert jobs for members whose land was recovered.
Phong Toan Market is managed by Phong Toan Cooperative, located in Ha Huy Tap Ward (Vinh City). About 20 years ago, on July 19, 2004, Vinh City People's Committee issued Decision No. 2587/2004/QD-UBND on assigning Ha Huy Tap Ward People's Committee to be the owner.investing in planning new marketsOn September 13, 2004, Vinh City People's Committee continued to issue Official Dispatch No. 1185/CV.UB agreeing to deploy the preparation work for basic construction investment in 2005, including the construction of the new Ha Huy Tap market.
Based on the decisions and official dispatches of the Vinh City People's Committee, within 5 years, from 2004 to the end of 2008, the People's Committee of Ha Huy Tap Ward completed the steps of investment preparation, compensation for site clearance, site leveling, construction of traffic and drainage systems around the market with the support capital of the province and the ward budget. The planned area for the construction of the new market was determined to be located at the corner of Ly Tu Trong Street and the planned road (now Nguyen Nang Tinh Street), with an initial area of 5,000m2.
However, due to the characteristics of the capital investment in market construction mobilized from business households in the market (mainly members of Phong Toan Cooperative), in addition to the economic development factor, there is also a social factor, basically changing jobs for members whose land was recovered for urban planning and development. Therefore, in early 2009, the People's Committee of Ha Huy Tap Ward submitted a document to the People's Committee of Vinh City to hand over the investor to Phong Toan Cooperative to suit the work of capital mobilization for construction investment, management, business and exploitation of the market. On March 16, 2009, the People's Committee of Vinh City agreed with this policy.
After taking over the construction of the market, Phong Toan Cooperative mobilized capital from small traders (also known as shareholders), and in 2009 started construction and in 2012 officially put it into operation, with a total investment of 21 billion VND. Phong Toan Market after completion has a total area of 6,678.2m2; including a solid 2-storey main hall, subsidiary halls selling vegetables, fruits, meat and fish and a system of kiosks around Ly Tu Trong street, Nguyen Nang Tinh street and the planned streets to the West and South of the market, with a total of 400 kiosks, business locations, equivalent to 3,157.96m2.
During the period from construction and operation until before 2022, Phong Toan Cooperative did not collect land rent from small traders, but only collected taxes, environmental sanitation fees... to submit to the State management agency. By 2020, Phong Toan Cooperative had submitted land lease documents to the Provincial People's Committee to suit actual conditions, ensuring land resource management. At the end of 2021, after a period of consultation with relevant departments and branches, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 635/QD-UBND to Phong Toan Cooperative to lease 6,678.2m2Land in Ha Huy Tap ward with a term of 50 years.
On April 14, 2022, the Land Lease Contract between Phong Toan Cooperative and the Provincial People's Committee was officially signed, with a rental price of VND 179,412/m2. Not long after the land lease contract was signed, on April 21, 2022, Vinh City Tax Department sent Phong Toan Cooperative a notice of land rent payment with a total amount payable of nearly 1.2 billion VND/year.
Not enough revenue to pay taxes
Ms. Tran Thi Huong - Director of Phong Toan Cooperative said: Immediately after receiving the Tax Notice, the Cooperative Management Board was really worried, because even though they had mobilized all their resources, they could only pay about 650 million VND; most of the traders did not agree with the excessively high land rental price currently applied to Phong Toan market. In fact, only the kiosks on Ly Tu Trong and Nguyen Nang Tinh streets could get a high price, but it could not exceed the regulations on market levels set by Vinh city.
According to Ms. Huong, although Phong Toan market has built 400 kiosks and business stalls, in reality, since the time of operation, it has only reached 25-30% and has tended to decrease. From 2013 to now, the entire main hall on the 2nd floor, with 89 business stalls, has not been operating. In particular, since the Covid-19 epidemic, people's business and trading trends have changed, making Phong Toan market's operations increasingly difficult. In total, only 100/400 kiosks are still operating.
After collecting about 650 million VND to pay to the tax authority in 2022, currently, Phong Toan Cooperative has not collected any more money to pay the remaining amount of 2022 and 2023; due to tax arrears, the tax authority has currently frozen its account and charged late payment interest of 0.03%/day.
Ms. Huong also added that the initial goal of building Phong Toan market was to create jobs for people when their agricultural land was taken away. However, the current way of calculating land rent is gradually pushing people and small traders doing business at the market into difficult situations.
The goods cannot be sold, and there are competitors from supermarkets, clothing stores, and mini-marts nearby. Meanwhile, there are many things to worry about, such as security, order, fire prevention, and the environment. If the rent is like this, the Cooperative will definitely not be able to complete.
Faced with the inadequacies in land rental prices, Phong Toan Cooperative has also proposed that the Provincial People's Committee consider allowing land tax payment based on the actual area of use of kiosks and stalls; requesting to adjust land rental prices according to the characteristics of market cooperatives to calculate land rental (the land origin is agricultural land managed by the Cooperative); at the same time, requesting to pay land tax based on the approved construction design planning area of 3,157.9m22, on a total of 6,678.2m2However, up to now, the recommendations of Phong Toan Cooperative have not been thoroughly resolved.
It is worth mentioning that like Hung Loc Cooperative (the unit managing Coi market in Hung Loc commune), Phong Toan Cooperative also questioned and compared the land rental price currently applied to cooperatives in Vinh city. If Hung Loc Cooperative has to pay a rental price of 187,140 VND/m2, and Phong Toan Cooperative is currently paying a rental price of 179,412 VND/m2(Both of them are not entitled to land rent reduction), meanwhile, Vinh University market managed by Ben Thuy Cooperative has an area of 4,318.8m2, enjoy rental price of 78,121 VND/m2, at the same time, also get a 50% reduction in land rent; Dai Hue Cooperative, the management unit of Dai Hue Plaza building right at the beginning of Nguyen Phong Sac street (Customs roundabout area), with an area of 4,009.7m2, enjoy land rental price of 104,518 VND/m2, and also get a 50% reduction in land rent.
Mr. Ngo Xuan Nam - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Ha Huy Tap Ward said that up to now, the ward has always accompanied Phong Toan Cooperative, however, because this is an independent accounting unit, the role of the ward is only to manage administrative work, ensure security, order, fire prevention and fighting. After receiving information about land rental prices, the ward also made recommendations for support, at the same time, guided the Cooperative to make submissions to the ward and city so that it can make recommendations to higher levels for support policies. Even at meetings with voters with the provincial and city People's Council delegates, the ward also made recommendations, however, there has not been any satisfactory answer compared to the recommendations of the Cooperative.
The existence of traditional markets such as Phong Toan market and Coi market in Vinh city is in accordance with planning and actual conditions, and the questions about land rental prices of cooperatives managing these traditional markets are legitimate. In response to the recommendations of the units managing these traditional markets, it is necessary to review all land rental prices of markets and cooperatives in the city to have a solution to ensure fairness and people's needs.
