Early completion of Decree regulating administrative sanctions for violations in the land sector

The Government Office has just issued Notice No. 425/TB-VPCP dated September 18, 2024, concluding the conclusions of Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha at the in-person and online meeting on the Decree regulating administrative sanctions for violations in the field of land.

Illustration: Duc Thanh

Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha concluded that the 2024 Land Law will take effect from August 1, 2024. Decrees detailing the implementation of the Land Law have been issued, requiring the Decree regulating administrative sanctions for violations in the land sector to be completed soon, ensuring the suitability, synchronization and unity of the land law system, meeting the requirements of society in the current period.

The Deputy Prime Minister welcomed ministries, localities and agencies that, through their practices, have contributed specific and detailed opinions on violations, penalty levels, additional penalties, remedial measures, authority and responsibilities of relevant agencies and individuals, clarifying shortcomings and perfecting the content of the draft Decree.

To continue perfecting the draft Decree, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment shall preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Justice and relevant ministries and agencies to study comments at the meeting, review the draft Decree, ensure its constitutionality, legality and the principle of consistency and synchronization with the provisions of the Land Law, the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations, the Law on Inspection and relevant specialized legal provisions. In particular, note:

It is necessary to review the provisions of the 2024 Land Law and the decrees detailing the implementation of the Land Law to fully supplement the acts and subjects such as: violations in the conversion of crop and livestock structure on rice land; construction works carried out without completing land allocation procedures; encroachment on land, occupation of unused land... review with the Decree on administrative sanctions in the field of real estate business to avoid duplication and at the same time avoid missing acts. Clarify some concepts for easy understanding and implementation.

The Decree needs to clearly define the content and nature of violations, the subjects of violations in accordance with reality, easy to understand, easy to check, easy to detect, easy to quantify in implementation and supervision of implementation; there must be sanctions strong enough, with enough deterrence to prevent violations; promote decentralization, delegation of power, clearly define the responsibilities of each level and each sector; establish tools to control the power of agencies and competent persons in land management, especially enhancing the responsibility of the commune level (the level directly managing land in the area) in detecting, handling and reporting to competent authorities to handle violations.

Regarding the regulation on determining the amount of illegal profits, there should be regulations that ensure feasibility, are consistent with the Land Law (Article 171, Article 172...) and local practices; and have regulations on handling illegal profits in cases where many organizations or individuals commit violations and benefit from the same violation.

Regarding the constitutionality and legality of regulations on land recovery, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment reviews the provisions of the 2024 Land Law on cases of land recovery due to violations, ensuring the authority and responsibility as prescribed by law; on that basis, agree with the Ministry of Justice to report to the Government for consideration and decision.

For acts with historical factors that have not yet been handled in writing, such as: not handling cases where households and individuals used land before October 15, 1993 and there was no handling document from a competent state agency before the effective date of the 2024 Land Law (Clause 4, Article 3 of the draft Decree)... The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment reviews the provisions of the law over each period, clarifying the consistency with the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations to have handling regulations in the Decree appropriate to the act.

Regarding the regulations on handling a person who violates the same act in many plots of land within the same commune-level administrative boundary or in the same project: The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment shall preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Justice based on the principles prescribed by the Law on Administrative Violations to have regulations appropriate to the nature, scale, and level of the violation, ensuring deterrence and prevention, meeting the requirements of state management at the local level and in accordance with the provisions of law.

Stipulate principles, criteria, and cases where the original state must be restored, including regulations on the responsibility for restoring the original state in cases where many organizations or individuals commit violations from the same incident, and assign the Provincial People's Committee to issue specific regulations on restoring the original state to ensure feasibility and suitability with local realities.

Regarding the additional penalty of "temporary revocation of the right to use a license", it is adjusted in the direction that in cases where the remaining term of the license is less than the penalty term, the revocation term is the remaining term of the license and it can only be reissued after the revocation period according to the provisions of law, ensuring consistency with the draft Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 118/2021/ND-CP dated December 23, 2021 of the Government detailing a number of articles and measures to implement the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations being submitted to the Government.

Complete regulations on responsibilities and costs for measuring and determining the area of land in violation in cases where there is no data on land records of the land plot to ensure feasibility and suitability with reality.

Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha assigned the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to coordinate with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to review and supplement the authority to draw up records and the authority to impose penalties of other agencies such as the inspection agencies of national defense, police, agriculture, etc. in accordance with the authority prescribed in the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations.

The People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities shall, based on practical experience, send specific comments to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment for study and finalization of the draft Decree. After studying, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment shall accept, explain and report to the Deputy Prime Minister before September 20, 2024.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/batdongsan/som-hoan-thien-nghi-dinh-quy-dinh-xu-phat-vi-pham-hanh-chinh-trong-linh-vuc-dat-dai-d225304.html