Draft Land Law needs revision
18-09-2012
 Constructions in Splendora project in An Khanh Commune, Ha Noi's Hoai Duc District. |
According to NA Budget and Finance Committee chairman Phung Quoc Hien, land pricing has become a thorny issue because of "lying at the heart of most land-dispute cases due to a lack of a working land pricing mechanisms".
According to Government Inspectorate statistics, land-related complaints and denunciations account for 70 per cent of the total nationwide figure.
Although the proposal introduces a provision in which it states that the compensation rate used in land revocation must be decided by the State in accordance with the market value, it is still unclear how it should be calculated.
This point was further elaborated by NA Committee for Deputies' Affairs chairwoman Nguyen Thi Nuong who cited the example that the compensation price for revoked agricultural land varies from case to case due to different pricing methods. The price can either be stipulated by the State, set by market value or agreed between investors and farmers.
"In most cases, if not every case, farmers will always lose out while investors will make huge profit from the newly-acquired land," she said.
NA chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung also expressed his sceptism on the feasibility of the land pricing proposed in the draft.
"You say that you calculate the compensation price according to the market value, but at which point of time? At the time of pricing or at the time of land acquisition? If this is not delicately handled, it may lead to a paradoxical situation in which newly-built industrial parks lie idle while farmers have no land to work on," he said.
Hung added: "From the time of pricing to the time of acquisition, there is a vast difference in price on the market. It should be calculated to ensure that farmers get a fair share from their land."
Apart from land pricing, many committee members agreed that the amendments made to the Land Law, which have been compiled by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, had not touched on some of the most contentious issues and that relevant provisions, despite being reviewed, remained too vague.
While addressing the efforts being made by the compilation team to produce a better version of the current law, chairman of NA Law Committee Phan Trung Ly said that what had been presented to the NA was too broad to live up to the expectation that this law could make a breakthrough in helping to resolve land-related issues.
The amended Land Law draft has 14 chapters and 190 provisions, of which 21 provisions were kept intact from the existing law, 101 provisions were amended and the rest were newly added. The draft will be submitted to the NA by the end of this year and is expected to be adopted next year.
In the afternoon session, the Standing Committee also discussed the draft of the amended Publication Law.
Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children Dao Trong Thi said the committee generally agreed with most of the revisions made by the Ministry of Information and Communications.
However, some members noted that the amended law should take into consideration the management of online publications, which are becoming more popular.
