Although the auction of mineral exploitation rights has contributed to promoting the potential value of minerals and significantly increasing revenue for the State budget, it cannot be denied that there are still violations in mineral exploitation activities that need to be inspected, corrected and strictly handled by competent State agencies.
TN&MT Newspaper reporter had a conversation with Mr. Tran Phuong - Deputy Director of Vietnam Minerals Department to clarify this issue.
Reporter: Recently, public opinion has been very interested in the auction results of 3 sand mines in Hanoi which were many times higher than the starting price. How do you evaluate this result, sir?
Mr. Tran Phuong: The Law on Minerals stipulates that the granting of mining licenses is carried out on the basis of auctioning mineral exploitation rights, except for mineral areas that are designated by the Prime Minister as areas where mineral exploitation rights are not auctioned according to the criteria specified in Article 22 of Decree No. 158/2016/ND-CP. Through auctioning mineral exploitation rights, enterprises have the opportunity to compete fairly and transparently to participate in mineral exploitation activities.
However, the recent auction results for 3 sand mines in Hanoi with the winning bid price being hundreds of times higher than the starting price is an "abnormal" number. With that auction result, just calculating the costs related to the obligation to grant mineral exploitation rights has far exceeded the selling price of construction sand products on the market. Therefore, implementing the mineral exploitation project after winning the auction is very difficult to be feasible.
To clarify this issue, immediately after receiving information about the auction results, the Vietnam Minerals Department sent a document requesting the Hanoi Department of Natural Resources and Environment to report and provide relevant information and documents for a full assessment of the organization of the auction. Afterwards, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment also sent a document requesting the Hanoi People's Committee to direct the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to promptly report and provide information.
Reporter: Could you please tell us, after the Prime Minister's Official Dispatch No. 1087, what solutions has the Vietnam Minerals Department advised the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment on to strengthen the management of the auction of mineral exploitation rights for common construction materials (VLXDTT)?
Mr. Tran Phuong: Mineral exploitation rights are a special type of property, therefore, determining the value and organizing the auction has its own characteristics, unlike auctions of other types of property. Specifically, the auction object here is the mineral exploitation right, not the auction of the value of the mineral mine, and the auction object also has 2 types: mineral exploitation rights in mineral areas with exploration results and those without exploration results.
Therefore, in the coming time, the Department will, under its authority or in consultation with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, continue to coordinate with the Departments of Natural Resources and Environment of provinces and centrally-run cities to promote and improve the quality and effectiveness of propaganda, dissemination and education on the law on auction of assets that are mineral exploitation rights; raise awareness of the policy on auctioning mineral exploitation rights.
In particular, before the auctions, it is necessary to clearly explain to investors what the auction subjects are. In addition to the obligation to pay the auction winning right fee, investors must still fulfill other tax, fee and charge obligations according to the provisions of law, and must still invest in exploiting, transporting, processing, storing and consuming the exploited minerals in order to have a suitable bidding plan based on the reserves, quality, conditions of exploitation, transportation, processing and consumption of each mine.
Regarding management, according to the provisions of the Law on Minerals, minerals used as construction materials are under the management and licensing authority of the provincial People's Committee, so the Department will advise the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to issue a document requesting the People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of state management of auctions of mineral exploitation rights in the locality. Accordingly, in addition to organizing auctions in accordance with regulations, promptly correcting and strictly handling violations of property auction organizations, auctioneers and related individuals and organizations, it is necessary to pay attention and focus on strictly controlling the implementation of regulations after licensing.
Specifically: monitoring, declaring, statistics, inventory and control of actual mining output, permitted mining reserves, in case the licensed reserves are fully exploited but the mine still has reserves, the organization or individual licensed to exploit minerals must report to the competent authority for consideration and decision. Strictly handle acts of illegal mining, transportation, gathering, trading and use of minerals without a license, mining beyond the licensed boundaries according to regulations, especially for sand and gravel in river beds and lake beds.
Regarding the completion of the legal framework, the Department is being assigned to preside over the development of the Law on Geology and Minerals, and is also closely coordinating with the agency in charge of developing the Draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Property Auction.
Accordingly, to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the auction, the Department will continue to improve the general legal framework on asset auctions in the direction of having separate regulations for specific assets such as mineral exploitation rights such as increasing the deposit level; having sanctions prohibiting organizations and individuals from depositing money to participate in subsequent auctions, regulations to closely monitor and control actual exploitation output in accordance with licensed reserves...
Reporter: Sir, what plans will the Department implement to coordinate with relevant ministries and branches, especially localities, to strengthen the management of the auction of mineral exploitation rights for construction materials?
Mr. Tran Phuong: Implementing the direction of the Prime Minister, the Vietnam Minerals Department is advising the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to coordinate with the Ministries of Justice, Finance, Construction, Planning and Investment to establish an Inspection Team for the auction of mineral exploitation rights in a number of localities, focusing on localities with auction results many times higher than the starting price, in order to promptly detect inadequacies in legal regulations to advise and propose competent authorities to amend, adjust and supplement the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Property Auction, the Law on Geology and Minerals in the coming time; not to let the situation of taking advantage of loopholes for profiteering, group interests, taking advantage of auctions to disrupt the market; in case of detecting violations, it will be handled or proposed to competent authorities to handle according to the provisions of law.
PV: Thank you very much!
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