Mr. Tran Thanh Ha, Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Quang Nam province: Amendments to better suit the actual situation
To improve the effectiveness and efficiency of local mineral management, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is recommended to amend and supplement legal regulations to ensure consistency, uniformity, and suitability to the actual situation. Specifically, it is necessary to amend and supplement the Decree on auction of mineral exploitation rights to comply with the Law on Property Auction and actual conditions.
The law also needs to stipulate what deep processing is; more specifically stipulate the responsibilities, support levels, and contributions to building welfare facilities for localities where minerals are located by enterprises licensed to exploit minerals.
Allow the Provincial People's Committee to issue licenses for mineral exploitation (other than minerals used as common construction materials) in construction investment areas because currently, the progress of construction investment projects is very fast and some factories have invested but lack raw materials. At the same time, allow decentralization and authorization for the District People's Committee to organize auctions of mineral exploitation rights under the licensing authority of the Provincial People's Committee to speed up the implementation of auctions, creating proactive material sources in localities.
On the other hand, it is necessary to remove the regulations requiring a mine director, auction procedures and exploration procedures for small-scale mining of common construction materials, especially sand mining in mountainous areas; remove exploration procedures for mining for urgent projects, prevention and mitigation of natural disasters as well as regulations on reimbursement of mineral potential assessment costs and mineral exploration costs for small-scale, scattered mineral mining projects.
The locality also proposed amending the Land Law in the direction that all mineral exploitation projects are subject to land recovery; land recovered after the closure of mineral mines is handed over to the People's Committee at the commune level for management.
Mr. Vo Van Hieu, Deputy Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Phuoc Son district: The 2010 Mineral Law puts resource exploitation activities in order.
The 2010 Mineral Law clearly demonstrates new “breakthrough” viewpoints that fundamentally change the work of protecting, managing, exploiting and using national mineral resources; resolves issues that have caused much concern and debate in the State management of minerals up to now; at the same time, abolishes inappropriate regulations and adds new regulations that are more suitable to reality. The detailing of issues with sufficient theoretical and practical basis right in the provisions of the Law helps reduce the number of guiding documents under the law.
In recent years, mineral resources in the district have been invested in and exploited by enterprises inside and outside the province to serve the needs of society. Currently, in the district, there are a number of enterprises that have invested in deep processing factories of various types of minerals on a large scale, with advanced technology and equipment such as Phuoc Son Gold Company Limited. In general, licensed mineral activities in the district have partly met the demand for raw materials for socio-economic development, increased revenue for the State budget, created jobs, and contributed to the management of the area.
However, during the implementation process, the 2010 Mineral Law has some shortcomings such as the current tax calculation for mineral exploitation. In addition to having to pay resource tax, the Mineral Law stipulates that the fee for granting mineral exploitation rights overlaps with the resource tax for mineral exploitation according to the provisions of the Law on Resource Tax. Thus, in reality, the resource tax for mineral exploitation has been increased, making the already high resource tax even higher. In addition, the conditions for being granted a license to use KTKS as construction materials with small exploitation capacity, short exploitation time, serving local needs are too strict.
Mr. Nguyen Cong Binh, Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Nam Giang district: Consider granting local mining licenses in small-scale areas.
Previously, illegal mining often occurred in the district, but since 2016, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment and local sectors have regularly organized inspections, prevented and promptly handled cases of illegal mining, preventing illegal mining from occurring in the district.
In order to effectively organize the management and protection of mineral resources in the district, the unit recommends that competent authorities continue to support the district in investigating and assessing the entire potential of minerals in the district to include them in planning and effectively manage exploitation, contributing to the socio-economic development of the district. At the same time, support funding for the district to carry out the work of surveying and mapping cadastral maps to build a land database to serve the management of land, mineral resources, and environmental protection. Consider a mechanism to authorize the district People's Committee to grant licenses for sand mining as common construction materials for small areas with reserves of about 1,000m3 - 2,000m3 to meet the construction needs in the district.
Mr. Dang Ngoc Minh, Deputy Director of Phuoc Son Gold Company Limited (Quang Nam): Shortening and streamlining licensing procedures to facilitate businesses
During the exploitation process in the locality, the enterprise always complies with the provisions of the law, contributes to the budget of Quang Nam province, creates jobs for hundreds of workers on the spot. However, the company also proposed some difficulties such as the time to process applications for licenses for mineral exploration, exploitation, and land lease is prolonged, administrative procedures are still difficult and inadequate, causing the enterprise to spend a lot of time and money, slow down investment progress, and affect production. In addition, through the practical operation of the enterprise, there is an overlap in the area that has been explored, approved and licensed for exploitation with other types of planning such as forestry, industrial parks, energy projects, ports, etc., increasing the time and investment costs of the project, reducing investment competitiveness.
Therefore, we recommend that the authorities need to have solutions to shorten the time and streamline administrative procedures in the process of processing licensing applications, creating more favorable conditions for businesses to operate. Currently, the new Law on Environmental Protection takes effect from January 1, 2022 and Decree 8/2022, Circular 2/2022 of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment have a lot of new information, but applying and understanding them is difficult. Therefore, we suggest that there be additional guidance for businesses to understand and apply.
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