To soon complete of the Decree on land-related administrative sanctions in Vietnam

To soon complete of the Decree on land-related administrative sanctions in Vietnam

On August 30, 2024, Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Vietnam Tran Hong Ha chaired both an in-person and online meeting discussing the Decree on land-related administrative sanctions.

As per Notification 425/TB-VPCP dated September 18, 2024, after listening to the report by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Vietnam and the opinions of representatives from various ministries, central and local authorities, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Vietnam remarked that with the Land Law 2024 effective from August 1, 2024, and the issuance of detailed decrees implementing the Land Law, the Decree on land-related administrative sanctions must be expedited, ensuring consistency, comprehensiveness, and uniformity of the legal system governing land, meeting societal demands in the current phase.

The Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Vietnam appreciated the concrete and detailed contributions of various ministries, localities, and agencies on practical aspects like violation behaviors, sanction levels, supplementary penalties, remedial measures, competence, and responsibilities of relevant agencies and individuals, clarifying inadequacies, and improving the draft Decree content.

To further refine the draft Decree, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Vietnam will lead, in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice and pertinent ministries and agencies, to review meeting contributions and draft Decree, ensuring constitutionality, legality, and the principle of coherence and synchronization with Land Law, Law on Handling Administrative Violations, Law on Inspection and related specialized legal regulations. Specifically:

- Review provisions of the Land Law and its implementing decrees to comprehensively incorporate behaviors and entities like violations in converting crop and livestock structures on rice land; unprocessed land allocation yet construction commencement; land encroachment, land occupation...; examine overlap with decrees on administrative sanctions in real estate business to avoid duplication and omissions. Clarify some concepts to ensure easy understanding and implementation.

- The Decree must clearly define the nature and content of violation behaviors, suitable offending entities matching practice, understandable, easy to inspect, detect, quantify in enforcement and monitoring; provide strong, deterrent penalties to prevent violations; promote decentralization, specifying responsibilities of each level and sector.

- On specifying illegal profit determination, there must be provisions ensuring feasibility, aligning with Land Law (Articles 171, 172...) and local realities; address illegal profits where multiple entities/individuals benefit from a violation incident.

- Concerning constitutionality, legality in land recovery regulations, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Vietnam should review provisions of the Land Law on reclaimed land due to violations, competence, and responsibilities must be legally established; coordinating with the Ministry of Justice to report to the Government of Vietnam for consideration and decision.

- For historical factor behaviors lacking handling documents like: non-action for land use by households/individuals before October 15, 1993, without prior handling documents by competent state agencies before the Land Law took effect (Clause 4 Article 3 of the draft Decree)..., the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Vietnam should review historical legal regulations to align with the Law on Handling Administrative Violations in specifying such behaviors in the Decree.

- On handling multiple violations by the same person across various parcels within same commune or project: the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Vietnam should collaborate with the Ministry of Justice to base on principles of the Law on Handling Administrative Violations for appropriate regulations reflecting violation nature, scale, and severity, ensuring deterrence and prevention meeting local governance needs and legal conformity.

- Specify principles, criteria for restoring original state, including responsibility for restoration when multiple parties violate from a single incident, with provincial People's Committee defining specific restoration regulations, feasible and fitting local realities.

- For supplementary penalty "temporary revocation of license", modify fittingly such that if the remaining license term is shorter than the penalty period, license revocation applies for the remaining term and reissuance only after the penalty term per law, aligning with the draft amending and supplementing Decree 118/2021/ND-CP detailing some articles and enforcement measures of the Law on Handling Administrative Violations presented to the Government of Vietnam.

- Finalize regulations on responsibility, funding for boundary survey to determine violating land area in absence of cadastral records, ensuring feasibility and practical applicability.

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