The Draft Law on Geology and Minerals was established by the Drafting Committee and Editorial Team under Decision No. 476/QD-BTNMT dated March 6, 2023 of the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment; and was sent by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to collect comments from ministries, branches, and localities; professional associations, mineral exploitation associations; the Vietnam Federation of Industry and Commerce (VCCI); and corporations and general companies operating in the fields of geology and minerals. The draft Law dossier was posted on the Government's Electronic Information Portal as well as the Electronic Information Portal of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment from July 31 to October 1, 2023 to collect public comments, and for people and businesses to directly contribute to the Drafts.
In addition, during the process of drafting the Law on Geology and Minerals, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment organized 3 Workshops in 3 regions (Northern region in Quang Ninh on September 15, 2023, Southern region in Lam Dong on September 29, 2023, Central region in Khanh Hoa on October 13, 2023), as well as field surveys in localities including Dak Nong, Lam Dong, Thanh Hoa to consult opinions on the Draft Law.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has also organized the implementation of a number of ministerial-level scientific projects to study and evaluate the current state of state management of minerals; the shortcomings, limitations and inadequacies in the implementation of laws on minerals and other relevant laws in order to propose solutions to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of state management of minerals; and to assign and decentralize state management of geology and minerals among ministries, branches and localities.
Grasping the issues that the whole country has been concerned about regarding the Draft Law, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has successfully organized the above Workshops as well as meetings of the Drafting Committee and Editorial Team. Most recently, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment organized the 3rd meeting of the Drafting Committee and Editorial Team of the Geology and Minerals Law Project to complete the Draft Law according to comments. This meeting follows the previous meetings of the Drafting Committee and Editorial Team held from January to March 2023 and has many new points in the organization method, attracting great attention from society and creating high efficiency.
In addition to the above meetings and workshops, the leadership team and staff assigned to develop the Law on Geology and Minerals under the Vietnam Minerals Department and the Vietnam Geological Survey regularly held planned and unscheduled meetings, reporting to Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Quoc Khanh and Deputy Minister Tran Quy Kien the detailed contents of the Draft Law. There were working sessions that lasted all day, even on holidays and outside of working hours. Under the direction and guidance of the Ministry's leaders, at the end of December 2023, the two units completed the dossier, the Draft Law on Geology and Minerals and submitted it to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment for submission to the Ministry of Justice for appraisal.
In addition to the progress of the development of the Law on Geology and Minerals, the contents of the Draft Law have also received great attention from organizations and individuals, especially related to the content of the fee for granting mineral exploitation rights and the reserve for calculating the fee for granting mineral exploitation rights. According to the representative of Nui Phao Mineral Exploitation and Processing Company Limited, the fee for granting mineral exploitation rights is a problem that the Company has encountered for many years. This is an important source of revenue for the State Budget, but it also creates a huge financial burden for businesses, creating the phenomenon of tax on tax, fee on fee.
To further improve the regulations on mineral exploitation rights fees in the Draft Law on Geology and Minerals, the Company recommends that the drafting agency conduct further research to develop and promulgate a formula for calculating mineral exploitation rights fees to ensure ease of implementation and national consistency for each type of mineral; ensure that the reserves for calculating rights fees are consistent with the reserves recorded in the granted license and that there should be a distinction between different levels of reserves due to the different levels of reliability and economic efficiency between them; determine the reserves for calculating rights fees based on the area and depth of the approved exploitation plan when granting the license instead of the vertical direction of the boundary on the surface to ensure compliance with technical factors in exploitation.
According to Dr. Le Ai Thu - Chairman of the Vietnam Economic Geology Association, the fee for granting mineral exploitation rights increases production costs, leading to loss of mineral resources. In fact, the fee for granting mineral exploitation rights is an expense of mineral enterprises, so when costs increase, enterprises are forced to find ways to reduce other costs. One of the most effective ways to reduce costs is to exploit rich areas with favorable mining conditions and leave behind the poorer ore that is more difficult to exploit.
On the other hand, under current regulations, mineral exploitation rights fees must be paid before receiving a mining license. This regulation reduces the ability of enterprises to invest in advanced technology, the negative impact of which is to lead to unwanted resource losses.
Commenting on the reserve for calculating the fee for granting mineral exploitation rights, Mr. Nguyen Tien Manh - Deputy General Director of Vietnam National Coal - Mineral Industries Group (TKV) said that the Draft Law should stipulate: "The reserve for calculating the fee for granting mineral exploitation rights is the part of the mobilized geological reserves located within the mining space/mine design border, appraised/approved by the competent authority as the basis for granting the mining license".
He explained that for open-pit mining projects, requirements on slope angles and mine banks must be met, resulting in the reserves projected vertically outside the open-pit mining design boundary not being allowed to be mobilized for exploitation.
The above comments are only representative of a part of the total number of comments sent to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. That shows that the Law on Geology and Minerals has been receiving great attention from the people, the business community, managers, scientists... They are looking forward to the Law on Geology and Minerals being issued to remove the "bottlenecks" in the current Law on Minerals, thereby enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of state management of geology and minerals, meeting the requirements of centralized management and unified state management of geology and minerals in the new period.
The scope of regulation of the Law on Geology and Minerals has supplemented basic geological survey activities, with legal regulations to strictly and fully manage the relationships related to this work throughout the provisions of the Draft Law. According to Mr. Tran Binh Trong - Director of the Vietnam Geological Survey, the Draft Law on Geology and Minerals is a solid legal basis to help the geology and mineral sector to uniformly and fully manage basic geological survey information and data in accordance with the scope and scale of the sector, to arouse the value of resources, not only minerals but also the entire value of geological resources for the cause of socio-economic development, ensuring national defense and security, and at the same time helping to manage geological resources more diversely and fully.
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