HCMC – After 57 property businesses in HCMC proposed removing obstacles to 64 housing projects, 29 others have made the same petition as their 38 commercial and social housing and resettlement projects are having trouble with procedures.
According to Anh Tuan Company, the investor of a residential area project in Phu Thuan Ward, District 7, it has repeatedly proposed the HCMC government and relevant departments, especially the Departments of Natural Resources and Environment and Finance, allow it to pay the land use fee to execute the project but in vain.
Other procedures for the 4.5-hectare residential area project have been completed, with the scale-1/500 planning being approved in 2015. Only the land use fee for the project has yet to be approved, although Anh Tuan filed for the fee approval on December 27, 2017.
The company now depends on this project to have the revenue to pay its employees’ salaries, maintain its operations and develop other projects.
It proposed the municipal government assign the municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment to coordinate with the Department of Finance to approve the land use fee for the project, Thanh Nien Online newspaper reported.
The company has arranged money to pay the fee as soon as the city makes an announcement.
Meanwhile, AA VinaCapital Co., Ltd has a long-stalled project in District 7 and has completed 90% of the procedures for the project. However, work on the project has yet to start due to obstacles in procedures to adjust the investment certificate.
During the completion of procedures for the construction license, the company did not receive the competent agencies’ requirements or instructions about the investment certificate adjustment. The company later worked with the HCMC Department of Planning and Investment in February 2020 and provided relevant documents but the issue has yet to be resolved after over two years.
Over the past three years, the company has striven to complete necessary procedures and has invested some VND450 billion in the project. Therefore, it expected the HCMC government to ask the municipal Department of Planning and Investment to approve the investment certificate adjustment, creating conditions for the company to receive the construction license for the project.
Another project facing obstacles is a high-rise apartment building project in the Dong Thang Long new urban area in Thu Duc City. The project, whose investor is Compensation and Clearance Corporation, was planned to be developed on over 65,500 square meters of land but has been put on hold for 13 years.
The project was approved in 2009, its investor was recognized in 2016, and the environmental impact assessment report and design have been completed. At the time, the company proposed handing over a resettlement block to the city in exchange for exemption from the land use fee for the four-block project.
However, the project has yet to get off the ground.
Lawyer Hoang Thu from the HCMC Bar Association said she had supported many real estate companies which wanted to pay the land use fees early. Earlier, the Department of Finance was in charge of fee collection but now it is the job of both the Departments of Finance and Natural Resources and Environment.
The process also involves appraisal companies and the city’s appraisal council led by a municipal deputy chairman, with the final decisions to be made by the municipal chairman.
The State budget is tight, while enterprises want to accelerate the completion of administrative procedures, especially the payment of land use fees, to put the project into operation soon to prevent losses. The early issuance of decisions on the land use fees will benefit the State, enterprises and the society, Thu added.
According to Tran Khanh Quang, a property expert, unreasonable regulations on the payment of the land use fees and investment and construction procedures in HCMC have brought many projects to a standstill.
Chairman of the HCMC Real Estate Association Le Hoang Chau proposed the city quickly remove the hindrances facing the projects which are not under inspection. The approval of the land use fees and the detailed planning should be accelerated.
