To continue implementing the 2024 Land Law, on July 30, 2024, the Government issued Decree No. 103/2024/ND-CP regulating land use fees and land rent ("Decree 103"). Below, ATA Legal Services has updated some notable and important contents of Decree 103 as follows:
1. Expanding the scope of land use fee exemptions
Decree 103 has added more cases eligible for land use fee exemptions as follows:
- Land used for policies for war invalids or sick soldiers unable to work, and martyr families without a primary breadwinner;
- Residential land for people who must relocate when the State revokes land due to life-threatening risks;
- Land area in cemetery infrastructure investment projects for transferring land use rights associated with infrastructure, constructing facilities for storing ashes, where the investor allocates these facilities to serve social policy beneficiaries as prescribed.
Compared to the previous Decree, which only provided land use fee exemptions for people displaced due to natural disasters without clearly mentioning cases of land revocation, the new Decree clarifies the exemption for land use fees when the State revokes land associated with residential housing. This applies when residents must relocate but do not qualify for compensation for residential land and have no other accommodation within the administrative unit where the land is revoked.
Additionally, Decree 103 clearly outlines the responsibilities of land management agencies in reporting and summarizing cases eligible for land use fee exemptions, as well as the responsibilities and consequences if the exempted person does not meet the conditions. This includes revoking the exemption and requiring the individual to pay an amount equivalent to the late payment of land use fees.
2. Adding new cases eligible for land use fee reductions
In addition to the previously recognized cases for land use fee reductions, Decree 103 has added the following new cases:
- A 50% reduction in land use fees for residential land for officials, civil servants, public employees, officers, professional soldiers; teachers, and healthcare workers… (hereinafter referred to as "Officials and Employees") working in border communes, islands, or island districts without commune-level administrative units in areas with especially difficult socio-economic conditions;
- A 30% reduction for Officials and Employees working in border communes, islands, or island districts without commune-level administrative units in areas with difficult socio-economic conditions;
- Land use fee reduction for land used in cemetery infrastructure investment projects for transferring land use rights associated with infrastructure, constructing facilities for storing ashes:
- 50% reduction: for projects invested in areas with especially difficult socio-economic conditions;
- 30% reduction: for projects invested in areas with difficult socio-economic conditions;
- 20% reduction: for projects not falling into the above two cases.
3. Changing the scope of cases eligible for land rent exemptions for the entire lease term
Decree 103 changes the scope of cases eligible for land rent exemptions for the entire lease term, specifically:
3.1. Removing the following cases:
- Investment projects in especially incentivized investment fields in areas with especially difficult socio-economic conditions.
- Investment projects for building worker housing in export processing zones.
- Projects using land to build student dormitories.
- Land used for afforestation projects for protective forests and coastal forests.
- Land for building non-profit facilities of public service organizations; land for building scientific research facilities of scientific and technological enterprises.
- Land for building infrastructure works used in common within industrial zones, industrial clusters, and export processing zones.
3.2. Adding the following cases:
- Land used for constructing specialized railway infrastructure and industrial railway works.
- Land used for implementing investment projects to construct transportation infrastructure under the public-private partnership method.
- Land used for building rental social housing; investment projects for renovating and rebuilding old apartment buildings that are eligible for land rent exemptions under housing and land laws.
- Exempting land rent for areas not used for defense and security purposes by military or police enterprises that separate land used for defense and security purposes from land used for other purposes.
4. Expanding the scope of cases eligible for land rent reductions
Previously, land rent reductions only applied to cooperatives or in cases of land rented for production and business affected by events such as natural disasters, fires, or force majeure accidents.
Under the new regulations, land rent reductions target specific subjects, works, and projects as follows:
- An 80% reduction in annual land rent for the entire lease term for land used to construct auxiliary works directly serving the operation of trains, passenger handling, and cargo loading and unloading on railways; for land used to build aviation services and non-aviation services as prescribed;
- A 50% reduction in annual land rent for the entire lease term for public non-business units as prescribed;
- A reduction in annual land rent for the entire lease term based on the percentage of defense and security task revenue to total revenue for land areas not used for defense and security purposes but are utilized for both defense and security and other purposes. If the percentage cannot be determined, a 30% reduction in annual land rent for the entire lease term applies to the entire land area used for purposes for which the State leases the land.
- A 50% reduction in land rent for cases using land to implement investment projects under the public-private partnership method in incentivized investment sectors and areas, except for land used for constructing transportation infrastructure under the public-private partnership method.
Decree 103 takes effect from August 1, 2024, and replaces Decree No. 45/2024/ND-CP, Decree No. 46/2024/ND-CP; Decree No. 135/2016/ND-CP; Decree No. 123/2017/ND-CP; Decree No. 35/2017/ND-CP; Decree No. 79/2019/ND-CP, and repeals the provisions on land rent exemptions and reductions for socialized projects as specified in Article 6 of Decree No. 69/2008/ND-CP, Decree No. 59/2014/ND-CP./.
Comment: