What is change of land for rice cultivation to land for perennial crops in case of unregistered use of land that requiring registration as per the law in Vietnam?

What is change of land for rice cultivation to land for perennial crops in case of unregistered use of land that requiring registration as per the law in Vietnam?

Pursuant to Clause 1, Article 57 of the 2013 Land Law, regulations on cases in which change of land use purpose requires permission by competent state agencies:

a/ Change of land for rice cultivation to land for perennial crops, forests, aquaculture or salt production;

b/ Change of land for other annual crops to land for saltwater aquaculture, salt production or aquaculture in ponds, lakes or marshlands;

c/ Change of land for special-use forests, protection forests or production forests to land for other purposes within the type of agricultural land;

d/ Change of agricultural land to non-agricultural land;

e/ Change of non-agricultural land which is allocated by the State without land use levy to non-agricultural land which is allocated by the State with land use levy, or to leased land;

f/ Change of non-agricultural land which is not residential land to residential land;

g/ Change of land for construction of non-business facilities or land for public purposes involving commercial purpose, or non-agricultural land for business and production purposes which is not land for trading or services to land for trading or services; change of land for trading or services or land for construction of non-commercial facilities to land for non-agricultural production establishments.

Pursuant to Clause 3, Article 13 of Decree 91/2019/ND-CP regulating conversion of crops mechanism on paddy land against regulations and law; unregistered use of land for other purposes requiring registration as per the law

3. Unregistered repurposing of land among land types in agricultural lands requiring registration as per the law shall be sanctioned as follows:

a) A fine ranging from VND 2,000,000 to VND 5,000,000 shall be imposed if area of land illegally repurposed is less than 0.5 hectare;

b) A fine ranging from VND 5,000,000 to VND 10,000,000 shall be imposed if area of land illegally repurposed is from 0.5 hectare to less than 01 hectare;

c) A fine ranging from VND 10,000,000 to VND 20,000,000 shall be imposed if area of land illegally repurposed is from 01 hectare to less than 03 hectare;

d) A fine ranging from VND 20,000,000 to VND 50,000,000 shall be imposed if area of land illegally repurposed is 03 hectare or more.

At Points b, c, dd, Clause 5, Article 13 of Decree 91/2019/ND-CP, remedial measures are prescribed as follows:

5. Rectification measures:

b) Enforced registration for crops conversion with Commune-level People’s Committees with respect to cases specified in Clause 1 of this Article;

c) Enforced adoption of procedures to convert land use purposes as per the law for land plots granted the Certificate in cases specified in Clauses 3 and 4 of this Article;

dd) Enforced submision of illegal revenues generated by committing the violations specified in Clauses 3 and 4 of this Article; the illegal revenues shall be determined according to Clause 1 Article 7 of this Decree.

Thus, converting land for rice cultivation to land for perennial crops is a case of changing land use purposes and must be permitted by a competent state agency. Failure to register a change of purpose will result in a fine from 2 million to 50 million VND. Forced to carry out registration procedures for changing land use purposes according to regulations in Vietnam, carry out land registration procedures according to regulations for land plots that have not been granted a Certificate, and forced to return illegal profits obtained from the implementation violation.

What does application for repurposing of land in Vietnam include?

Pursuant to Article 6 of Circular 30/2014/TT-BTNMT regulating applications for repurposing of land as follows:

1. The applicant shall submit a set of application if land repurposing is subject to approval by a competent state authority, including:

a) A completed application form for repurposing of land provided in the specimen No. 1 attached hereto;

b) Either of the certificate of land use rights, certificate of house ownership and land use rights or the certificate of land use rights, house ownership and other property pertaining to land.

2. An application for repurposing of land submitted to the competent People’s Committee shall consist of:

a) The documents specified in Clause 1 this Article;

b) An on-site inspection record;

c) A copy of the notes of investment project if the project is not subject to approval by a competent authority or exempted from the certificate of investment; copy of the technical-economic report made by an organization using land if the plan for construction project is not required; the written assessment of demand for land use; or assessment of requirements for repurposing of land stipulated in Clause 3 Article 58 of the Land Law and Article 14 of the Decree No. 43/2014/ND-CP that has been made when granting the certificate of investment, carrying out assessment of the investment project or considering approving of the project if it is required to be submitted to the competent state authority for approval or the project must obtain the certificate of investment;

d) A written assessment of demand for land use or assessment of requirements for repurposing of land specified in Clause 3 Article 58 of the Land Law and Article 14 of the Decree No. 43/2014/ND-CP if the project is not subject to approval by a competent authority; the project is exempted from the certificate of investment and the plan for construction project is not required.

If a household or an individual applies for land repurposing from agricultural purposes to commercial purposes with the area of 0.5 ha or over, the applicant shall send an additional written approval made by the People’s Committee of province according to provisions of Point a Clause 2 Article 59 of the Land Law;

dd) The extracted cadastral map or extracted cadastral survey of the piece of land;

e) A written request and a draft of the decision on repurposing of land provided in the specimen No. 5 attached hereto.

Best regards!