Mr. Kim Man (in Kien Giang Province) has a plot of pond land, now he wants to change the use purpose to rice land. If he is allowed to change the purpose, what taxes and fees must he pay?

The General Department of Land Management - Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment responded to this issue as follows:

Article 14 of the 2013 Land Law stipulates, “The State decides on land use purposes through land use planning, land use plans and permits the change of land use purposes”.

According to Article 21 of the 2013 Land Law, People's Councils at all levels and People's Committees at all levels exercise the right to represent land owners.

In Clause 3, Article 45 of the Land Law stipulates:

"3. Provincial-level People's Committees approve district-level master plans and plans on land use.

The district-level People's Committees shall submit to the People's Councils of the same level for approval the district-level land use planning before submitting them to the provincial People's Committees for approval.

The district-level People's Committees shall submit to the provincial-level People's Committees for approval the district's annual land use plans. Provincial People's Committees shall submit to Provincial People's Councils for approval the list of projects that need to be recovered land specified in Clause 3, Article 62 of this Law before approving the district's annual land use plan.

Article 52 of the 2013 Land Law provides:

“Article 52. Bases for land allocation, land lease and change of land use purpose

1. The annual district-level land use plans which have been approved by competent state agencies.

2. Land use demands as indicated in investment project documents or in applications for land allocation, land lease or change of land use purpose”.

Cases of change of land use purpose

Article 57 of the 2013 Land Law stipulates:

“Article 57. Change of land use purpose

Article 57. Change of land use purpose

1. Cases in which change of land use purpose requires permission by competent state agencies:

a) Change of land for rice cultivation to land for perennial crops, forests, aquaculture or salt production;

b) Change of land for other annual crops to land for saltwater aquaculture, salt production or aquaculture in ponds, lakes or marshlands;

c) Change of special-use forest land, protective forests or production forests to land for other purposes within the type of agricultural land;

d) Change of agricultural land to non-agricultural land;

e) Change of non-agricultural land which is allocated by the State without land use levy to non-agricultural land which is allocated by the State with land use levy, or to leased land;

f) Change of non-agricultural land which is not residential land to residential land;

g) Change of land for construction of non-business facilities or land for public purposes involving commercial purpose, or non-agricultural land for business and production purposes which is not land for trading or services to land for trading or services; change of land for trading or services or land for construction of non-business facilities to land for non-agricultural production establishments.

2. When changing the land use purpose under Clause 1 of this Article, land users shall fulfill financial obligations as prescribed by law. The land use regime and the rights and obligations of land users are those applicable to the type of the land used for the new purpose.”

In Clause 1, Article 11 of Circular No. 02/2015/TT-BTNMT dated January 27, 2015 of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment detailing a number of articles of Decree No. 43/2014/ND-CP and Decree No. No. 44/2014/ND-CP (amended and supplemented according to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 12 of the Circular No. 33/2017/TT-BTNMT dated September 29, 2017 of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment with regulations detailing Decree No. 01/2017/ND-CP dated January 6, 2017 of the Government amending and supplementing a number of decrees detailing the implementation of the Land Law and amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Land. Circular guiding the implementation of the Land Law) stipulates:

"First. Cases of change of land use purpose that do not require permission from a competent State agency but must register the change, including:

a) Converting annual crop land to other agricultural land, including: Land used to build greenhouses and other houses for cultivation purposes; land for construction of barns for raising cattle, poultry and other animals permitted by law; aquaculture for the purpose of study, research and experiment;

b) Change of land for planting other annual crops or aquaculture land for perennial crops;

c) Converting land for growing perennial crops to land for aquaculture or annual crops;

d) Converting residential land to non-agricultural land which is not residential land;

dd) Converting commercial or service land to non-agricultural production and business land that is not commercial or service land; converting non-agricultural production and business land which is not commercial land, service land or non-agricultural production establishment land to land for construction of non-business works”.

Based on the above provisions, Mr. Man is requested to study and comply with the provisions of law.