Reasonable resolution of petitions of 51 households in Hung Binh ward, Vinh city

(Baonghean) - 51 households living in the adjacent residential area of ​​Vinaconex 16 Joint Stock Company (Group 18, Block 19, Hung Binh Ward, Vinh City) have sent a petition to the authorities and Nghe An Newspaper, byConcerned about land prices and late payment penalties for land use fees.

The petition of the households of Vinaconex 16 Joint Stock Company was sent to Nghe An Newspaper in mid-September 2017. According to the petition, they were former officers and workers of Construction Company No. 2 (now Vinaconex 16 Joint Stock Company). In 1992, Construction Company No. 2 prepared a planning dossier and built a residential area adjacent to the land in Block 19, Hung Binh Ward to solve housing problems for workers in the unit. In 1994, the residential area was completed, the company sold the apartments to the workers and since then, they have lived stably until now.

In 2006, the People's Committee of Hung Binh Ward was assigned by the People's Committee of Vinh City to be the investor, handling the necessary procedures according to regulations for families living in collective housing areas in the area so that the city can issue land use right certificates. With the collective housing area of ​​Vinaconex 16 Joint Stock Company, it was surveyed, planned... in 2014. Because of the desire to be granted land use right certificates for many years, therefore, households have actively completed their documents and sent them to the People's Committee of the ward. However, since then, they have not received any feedback.

Team leader of team 18, Mr. Vo Kinh Dien in front of the "bottleneck" leading to the inter-agency housing area of ​​Vinaconex 16 Joint Stock Company. Photo: Nhat Lan

Due to the long wait, some families contacted the relevant agencies themselves and were told that their documents were complete; they had received a notice of payment of land use tax from the Vinh City Tax Department. However, they also learned that the deadline for payment of land use tax had passed the prescribed time limit, so they were charged additional late payment fees (some families were 8 months late and were charged additional late payment fees of up to 22 million VND).

Households want to clarify whether the implementation of fines for late payment of land use fees is correct or not when relevant state agencies have not fully conveyed information to the people?

The Vinaconex 16 Joint Stock Company housing complex is located at entrance 2 of Kim Dong Street. To get here, you can go through alley 34A and alley 4. These alleys, although they have numbers and names, are narrow and winding. Representing the households, the head of the residential group, Mr. Vo Kinh Dien, said that according to the land extract, the inter-agency housing complex was planned to have two entrances to Kim Dong Street, with a width of 4.5m. However, the plan was not implemented.

Therefore, households are still wondering and want to be fully informed of the legal basis for the tax authority to impose land use fees. Mr. Vo Kinh Dien said: “With the reality of the residential area like that, households ask why they are not allowed to participate in discussions and get opinions to build appropriate land use prices…”.

Will resolve it reasonably

The Vinaconex 16 Company collective housing area has 54 households completing procedures to obtain land use right certificates. However, according to the investigation, up to now, 31 files have been completed and have been sent to the city; the remaining 23 files are either being kept at the ward because citizens have not signed the files, or have been returned for citizens to supplement the files.

Inter-agency housing area of ​​Vinaconex 16 Joint Stock Company. Photo by Nhat Lan.

According to the land officer, Mr. Nguyen Tat Au, the ward is responsible for guiding citizens to complete the application for land use right certificates; after completion, it is transferred to the City Land Use Right Registration Office; and the completed applications were transferred between 2016 and 2017. As for the next steps, the ward has not received any feedback.

According to the staff of the Registration Office, Vinh City Tax Department, the calculation of land use fees for the land lots of Vinaconex 16 Joint Stock Company's collective housing area is based on Decision No. 108/2014/QD-UBND dated December 30, 2014 of the Provincial People's Committee on promulgating the price list of land types from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2019 in Vinh City.

In this Decision, the price of land lots belonging to the Vinaconex 16 Company's housing complex is clearly stated, ranging from 4 - 6 million VND/m2. And the city's tax authority has compared to calculate the land use fee for each land lot of households in the Vinaconex 16 Joint Stock Company's housing complex to ensure accuracy.

From 2016 to present, the Registration Office has received and processed 25 records of households in the Vinaconex 16 Joint Stock Company collective housing area. Among them, some households have fulfilled their financial obligations. Regarding the implementation procedure, it is in accordance with Decision 09/2015/QD-UBND of Vinh City People's Committee on promulgating regulations on re-recognition of land use rights; only in April 2017, when Vinh City People's Committee abolished Decision No. 09, was it implemented according to Decision No. 02.

According to the provisions of Decision 09, upon receiving the application for a land use right certificate from the City Land Use Right Registration Office, the Tax Department will complete the determination of financial obligations within 3 days; then, the notice will be returned to the Land Use Right Registration Office. And the relevant citizens will receive the notice to fulfill their financial obligations.

In case the 1-month deadline has passed, if the citizen whose name is in the notice has not fulfilled his/her financial obligations, the tax authority will send an invitation to work with the Registration Team. After 3 times of sending the invitation, if the citizen is still absent, the tax authority will calculate the late payment fee.

An officer of the Registration Office said: “Currently, the tax authority keeps all the invitations to citizens, including those who have been invited for the third time; in addition, there are also delivery and receipt records with the Land Use Rights Registration Office; records of citizens who have fulfilled their financial obligations... Therefore, it is difficult to explain why the households in the Vinaconex 16 Joint Stock Company collective housing area petitioned for lack of information about the fulfillment of financial obligations, leading to late payment fees…”

However, according to the Head of the City Tax Department, Mr. Phan Van Viet, to verify that citizens have received notices of financial obligations, it is necessary to base on the notices. Accordingly, the notices must be signed by citizens. If citizens have not signed, the state agency still has shortcomings. Mr. Phan Van Viet said: "In the future, the tax agency will report to the City People's Committee, proposing that when state agencies have not fully informed the people, they will not charge late payment fees...".

On the side of Vinh City People's Committee, there is also information that, up to now, the city leaders have directed relevant departments and affiliated units to speed up the progress of resolving the collective housing areas in Hung Binh Ward. Particularly for the collective housing area of ​​Vinaconex 16 Joint Stock Company, it is determined that the entrance alleys are too small, creating bottlenecks, causing difficulties in traveling for people, it is necessary to carry out site clearance for related households to widen the alleys according to the planning approved by competent authorities.

To implement this content, the city has assigned the People's Committee of Hung Binh Ward to coordinate with the City Land Fund Development Center to measure the current status, count assets on land, land use origin... to develop a plan to submit to the City People's Committee for approval and implementation.

Regarding the proposal to consider late payment of land use fees, the City People's Committee assigned relevant parties to work with the City Tax Department to propose not to impose late payment penalties due to people not receiving tax notices. In addition, the City Tax Department was directed to simultaneously send a list to the People's Committees of wards and communes where the land is located to notify the families.

Nhat Lan