Hundreds of people in HCM City have returned their land use certificates to local authorities because of unreasonably high fees.
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| Land use right certificate |
Decision 28 issued in 2012 by the HCM City People's Committee stated that individuals are only granted full benefits for a limited area of land. If they hold more than the allowed land area or the land is outside of their residential area, they will have to pay double or even four times the regulated prices.
The limit in District 8 is 160 square metres and the decree has caused problems for many people, especially the poor.
"I only have a few dozen million in savings. But the fees to have full rights for all of my land would cost hundreds of millions of dong. So I decided to not apply for a land use certificate since I don't intend to sell or lease it anyway," Tu, a local in District 8 said.
According to the local Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the city still have 129,000 cases that are not eligible for certification. The department also reported that 11,606 have paid VND525 billion in fees. However, 322 owners have returned the certificates because they cannot afford the fee.
Head of the local Finance Department Dao Thi Huong Lan said individuals who can pay the fee had already made payments before Decree 28 was released. "The rest are poor people. They can't even pay the normal prices." she said.
To solve the problem, the city's Standing Committee has decided to set a lower fee.
The new fees will be applied to people who want official recognition of their land use rights and who want to convert the land-use purpose. However, the adjustment will not be applied to those who have already paid the fee in accordance with Decision 28.
