Ho Chi Minh City: Wasted public land has caused a great loss to the budget

Public land resources are being wasted while the real demand for residence is in short supply. Photo: ST

"Golden land" is wasted

According to the statistics by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Natural Resources and Environment and the Department of Construction, there are more than 11,000 vacant apartments and land plots for resettlement; nearly 200 public land plots have been misused and 110 public plots are vacant.

According to the Ho Chi Minh City Inspectorate, in May 2020, Cu Chi District alone had 81 public housing addresses for rent without auction and hundreds of other addresses that need to be reviewed and rearranged because they were abandoned or leased for the wrong purposes.

Additionally, according to a survey by the Ho Chi Minh City Land fund development center, there are 1,104 land plots managed by 28 state-owned corporations and companies. Among these, there are hundreds of land plots that are used for the wrong purposes such as business cooperation, lease, and improper housing arrangement. In particular, many "golden" areas managed by corporations and companies with 50-100% of state capital occupy a large area of land but cause waste and big losses to the budget due to improper use.

Typically, in the conclusion of wrongdoing at the real estate project No. 33 Nguyen Du, 34-36-42 Chu Manh Trinh, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, the Government Inspector pointed out a series of mistakes made by the Vietnam Southern Food Corporation (Vinafood 2) in converting public land to private land. Accordingly, after being assigned the four above real estate establishments by Ho Chi Minh City, Vinafood 2 has cooperated with Viet Han Company to illegally convert public land to private land, setting up a short project on the land to borrow a trillion VND from banks.

Notably, the Government Inspector said in the process of cooperation with private investors to convert public land into private land, Vinafood 2 had four times deliberately contravened the Prime Minister's direction. Specifically, Vinafood 2 did not re-establish the plan to arrange the four real estate establishments according to the Prime Minister's Decision No. 09 dated 2007 to submit to competent authorities for appraisal and submit to the Prime Minister for decision; and Vinafood 2 voluntarily cooperated with Viet Han Company, did not make procedures for association and capital contribution to submit to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Finance for appraisal before submitting to the Prime Minister for a decision.

Besides, although the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have issued many guiding documents, asking Vinafood 2 to develop a plan to divest its capital contribution at Viet Han Saigon Company, submit to competent authorities for approval, Vinafood 2 did not comply.

Effective and transparent management

The Ho Chi Minh City land fund development center said that in the past five years, this agency has successfully auctioned eight land lots, paying more than VND1,700 billion to the State budget. The remaining houses and land were assigned to other units for management under the direction of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee. Currently, the Land fund development center is managing 123 land plots that need to be rearranged and handle public property. Of these, the center has temporarily exploited 41 land plots in the form of short-term lease. Up to now, the proceeds from short-term leasing have reached more than VND110 billion. All of these revenues are remitted into the State budget.

Ho Chi Minh City has strictly handled many cases. However, land acquisition is facing many difficulties. Many businesses have subleased land, enjoyed its difference but have not paid taxes, causing losses of budget revenue. However, the punishment is just an administrative sanction, so it is not strong enough to deter firms.

Facing difficulties in public property management, Phan Thi Thang, Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, said the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee asked the Land fund development center to develop a treatment plan for each housing group, including the auction plan in accordance with the law.

For misused or vacant houses and land, it is necessary to develop management plans to use them for the right purposes, avoid wastefulness and resolve shortcomings in land allocation and land lease. Simultaneously, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Natural Resources and Environment was assigned to coordinate with relevant agencies to research and update on the map the list of state-owned properties for effective and transparent management.

Public land resources are being wasted while the real demand for land funds to serve the needs of residence is in short supply. Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA), said to solve the "abandoned house" situation, it is necessary to have measures to create liquidity for the market by stimulating demand, providing financial support, interest rates, and taxes to attract investors to effectively use land resources.