Are there penalties for arbitrarily leveling agricultural land in Vietnam?

Are there penalties for arbitrarily leveling agricultural land in Vietnam?

According to Clause 3, Article 3 of Decree 91/2019/ND-CP, land destruction is defined as follows:

3. “Land destruction” refers to the deformation or degradation of land or pollution of land which takes away or reduces land use capacity according to defined land use purpose, in which:

a) Land deformation refers to: changes to slope of land surface; lowering of land level due to land being taken to be used for other purpose or lowering of land level relative to adjacent plots; leveling land containing water sources with defined purposes, canals, irrigation channels or leveling to increase level of agricultural land relative to adjacent plots; except cases of improvement of agricultural land to turn into terraced paddy fields and other forms of improvement in conformity with use purpose of allocated or leased land, or in conformity with investment projects approved by competent People’s Committees which allocate or lease the land;

b) Land degradation refers to: loss or reduction of thickness of the soil layer that is being cultivated; changes to the topsoil of agricultural land caused by materials, wastes or soild mixed with gravel, rocks or soild with components different from the type of soild that is being used; erosion or water erosion of agricultural land;

c) Land pollution refers to contamination of soil with toxic substances, microorganism or parasites that harm plants, domestic animals and humans;

d) Loss of land use capacity according to defined use purposes refers to inability to use land with its use purposes which are designated when the land is allocated, leased, permitted to repurpose or recognized by the Government after committing any of the violations specified in Points a, b and c of this Clause;

dd) Reduction of land use capacity according to defined use purposes refers to cases where soil improvement must be invested in order for the land to be used with its use purposes which are designated when the land is allocated, leased, permitted to repurpose or recognized by the Government after any of the violations specified in Points a, b and c of this Clause is committed;

Thus, the act of leveling the land deformation (changes to slope of land surface; lowering of land level due to land being taken to be used for other purpose) of your family without losing or reducing the ability to produce agriculture. According to the original purpose of the land plot in Vietnam, it has not yet constituted a violation in Article 15 of Decree 91/2019/ND-CP.

If they commit the above act, depending on the area of ​​land destroyed, they will be administratively sanctioned for the act of destroying land according to the provisions of Article 15 of Decree 91/2019/ND-CP as follows:

1. Deformation or degradation of soil shall be sanctioned as follows:

a) A fine ranging from VND 2,000,000 to VND 5,000,000 shall be imposed if destroyed land area is less than 0.05 hectare;

b) A fine ranging from VND 5,000,000 to VND 10,000,000 shall be imposed if destroyed land area is from 0.05 hectare to less than 0.1 hectare;

c) A fine ranging from VND 10,000,000 to VND 30,000,000 shall be imposed if destroyed land area is from 0,1 hectare to less than 0.5 hectare;

d) A fine ranging from VND 30,000,000 to VND 60,000,000 shall be imposed if destroyed land area is from 0,5 hectare to less than 01 hectare;

dd) A fine ranging from VND 60,000,000 to VND 150,000,000 shall be imposed if destroyed land area is 01 hectare or more.

2. Pollution of the land shall be sanctioned in accordance with regulations and law on environmental protection.

3. Rectification measures to be adopted for violations specified in Clause 1 of this Article:

Enforced restoration of land to its original conditions before the violations. In case of failure to comply by persons committing the violations, the State shall revoke their land use rights as specified in Point b Clause 1 Article 64 of Land Law.

According to Article 6 of Decree 91/2019/ND-CP stipulating adoption of fine as follows:

1. Adoption of fine on entities committing administrative violations is as follows:

a) Fine amounts specified in Chapter II of this Decree apply to individuals except those mentioned in Point b of this Clause; fine amounts imposed on organizations shall equal twice the fine amounts imposed on individuals for the same administrative violation;

b) Fine amounts specified in Clause 4 Article 19, Article 20, Article 21, Article 22, Clause 4 Article 26, Article 27, Article 28, Clause 2 Article 30, Article 31 and Article 37 of this Decree apply to organizations.

2. Fine amounts imposed with authorization specified in Articles 38 and 39 of this Decree apply to individuals. Fine amounts imposed on organizations shall equal twice the fine amounts imposed on individuals for the same administrative violation.

Who has authority to allow leveling of agricultural land in Vietnam?

Pursuant to Article 59 of the 2013 Land Law, which stipulates competence to allocate, lease land and approve change of land use purpose as follows:

1. Provincial-level People’s Committees may decide on the allocation or lease of land, and permit change of land use purpose in the following cases:

a/ Allocation or lease of land to, and permission for change of land use purpose for, organizations;

b/ Allocation of land to religious institutions;

c/ Allocation of land to overseas Vietnamese or foreign-invested enterprises under Clause 3, Article 55 of this Law;

d/ Lease of land to overseas Vietnamese or foreign-invested enterprises under Points e and f, Clause 3, Article 56 of this Law;

2. District-level People’s Committees may decide on the allocation or lease of land, and permit change of land use purpose in the following cases:

a/ Allocation or lease of land to, and permission of change of land use purpose for, households and individuals. If these subjects wish to lease or use agricultural land with an area of 0.5 ha or more for trading and service purposes, written approval from the provincial-level People’s Committee is required before the district-level People’s Committee makes decision;

b/ Allocation of land to communities.

3. Commune-level People’s Committees may lease land from the agricultural land fund for public purposes in their communes, wards or townships.

4. Agencies having the competence to decide on land allocation or lease and permit change of land use purpose as prescribed in Clauses 1 and 2 of this Article may not delegate their competence.

According to this Article, depending on the purpose and subject of land use, the leveling of land for conversion of land use purposes will belong to the People's Committee of the province or the People's Committee of the district in Vietnam.

Best Regards!