The Tropicana Nha Trang project (at the old Hai Yen hotel, 40 Tran Phu) was suspended due to a sudden increase in land rent, and the project owner's request was not resolved - Photo: PHAN SONG NGAN
After Tuoi Tre Online published the article “Why was the project owner in Nha Trang unable to pay land fees according to the inspection conclusion?” , the Department of Information and Communications sent a document requesting the Khanh Hoa Provincial Tax Department to “check, verify, and handle the information reported by the press” so that the department could report to the Provincial People's Committee.
Businesses say land prices are calculated like "this man's beard is put on that woman's chin"
Information related to the petition of 7 enterprises who are investors implementing projects in Nha Trang City has been filed for more than 3 years but has not been resolved.
Specifically, the above enterprises proposed to reconsider the determination of land prices to calculate project land rent from 2020 to 2024, which increased dramatically (from 420% to more than 1,300% of previously regulated land prices).
In particular, the project of the commercial, tourism and serviced apartment complex Tropicana Nha Trang (abbreviated as the Tropicana Nha Trang project, total area of over 10,940m2 at the old Hai Yen hotel) has an annual land rent increase of over 520%.
The project owner, Tropical Company Limited, has been announced by the provincial Tax Department to owe more than 72 billion VND in taxes.
While up to now, the company has continuously sent many documents requesting to resolve the issue of determining land prices and calculating land rent for the project, which the company claims is due to not being calculated correctly according to legal regulations in relevant Government decrees.
According to the document of Khanh Hoa Provincial Tax Department dated November 8, 2024, the content of the problem of Nha Trang Tropical Company Limited reflected in Tuoi Tre Online newspaper arose in 2021.
Regarding the above project, according to the Provincial Tax Department, Nha Trang Tropical Company Limited has been leased land by Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee to implement the Tropicana Nha Trang project and build a common walkway (from March 24, 2015), total area of 10,940.6m2 , the form of land lease is to pay annual land rent (land for non-agricultural production and business).
Including land to implement the Tropicana Nha Trang project (over 10,424m2 ) and land to make a common path between the Tropicana Nha Trang project and Vien Dong hotel ( 516m2 ).
Based on the decisions of the Provincial People's Committee on land lease and approval of specific land prices, in 2015, the Khanh Hoa Provincial Tax Department announced the determination of land rental price (from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2019) for the entire land of the Tropicana Nha Trang project at VND 459,116/ m2 /year.
As of December 30, 2020, the Provincial Tax Department has announced the re-determination of the land rental price applied and stabilized for the next 5-year cycle for the Tropicana Nha Trang project.
Accordingly, for 10,424.6m2 to implement the Tropicana Nha Trang project, the land rental price is 2,419,200 VND/ m2 /year. The remaining 516m2 to make a common walkway with Vien Dong Hotel has a land rental price of 1,814,400 VND/ m2 /year.
The total annual land rent of the Tropicana Nha Trang project increased from more than 5 billion VND to more than 26.15 billion VND/year.
Nha Trang Tropical Company Limited proposed to resolve the problem of calculating the project's land rent that suddenly increased as above, due to the calculation of "this man's beard and that woman's chin".
The Provincial People's Committee admits shortcomings, the Tax Department still considers it "legal"
According to Nha Trang Tropical Company Limited, the above problem is because the Provincial Tax Department took the land price according to the 2020 - 2024 land price list issued by the Provincial People's Committee in February 2020. However, the land price adjustment coefficient to calculate the specific land price is according to the regulations issued since 2018 (K=4).
That is the coefficient K to adjust the land price list issued from 2014 (ie land price in 2015 - 2019, which is much lower than the land price list issued in 2020).
According to the report to the Ministry of Finance (May 2023), Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee also admitted that calculating specific land prices according to the land price adjustment coefficient as above is "not corresponding, increasing specific land prices, so land rents of enterprises increased dramatically".
However, according to the document of Khanh Hoa Provincial Tax Department just responded on November 8, "up to now, the Tax Department has not received any other instructions from Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee" regarding the issue of adjusting the land rental price mentioned above.
Therefore, the determination of land rental prices and land rent payable for the 2020-2024 period, which caused businesses to complain of a sudden increase, is still considered by the Provincial Tax Department to be "in accordance with legal regulations".
Why is land rent not paid according to the conclusion of the Central Inspection Commission?
Nha Trang Tropical Company Limited has submitted an application to pay the entire VND478 billion land rent for the entire land lease period (until 2062) for the Tropicana Nha Trang project, according to the inspection conclusion notice of the Central Inspection Committee from August 2019.
According to the response of Khanh Hoa Provincial Tax Department, up to now the department has not received a decision allowing the conversion of land lease to one-time payment for the entire land lease period at the Tropicana Nha Trang project.
Therefore, currently, the project owner is still being leased land by the People's Committee of Khanh Hoa province in the form of annual land rental payment to implement the above project.
Comment (0)