Registration fee policy will see big changes

The registration fee policy, which aims to recognize and protect the ownership of assets, has become unsuitable to the new circumstances. The Ministry of Finance has proposed that the Government to amend the policy.

Car registration fee increase proposed

Burden on the poor, nonsense to the rich

Registration fees have become a burden on people, especially poor people. Under the current regulations, people who buy new properties have to pay the registration fee of 1% of the land prices stipulated by local people’s committees. As the land prices have been skyrocketing, the sums of money people have to pay for the registration have become very large. Besides, people also have the land use right assignment taxes of 2% on agriculture land, 4% on housing land and non-agriculture land, and other fees for procedures.

According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MNRE), the heavy taxes and registration fees prove to be one of the biggest reason that has caused the delays in granting red books (certificates on land use rights).

The reports by 51 localities on the reasons behind the tardiness in red book granting by the end of 2007 showed that in Quang Ninh and Tien Giang, 100% of the cases were because of the heavy expenses. Financial problems made up 52% of the reasons why the red book granting has been slow. In Hanoi, 50-60% of people have not come to state agencies to get red books, because of the high expenses they have to pay to get the books.

According to an official from the ministry, if considering that every household in rural and mountainous areas has 300 sq m on average, and the land price of VND1-1.5mil/sq m, the registration fee every household has to pay may be as high as VND3-5mil, which is very unreasonable.

The Government has decided that in big cities, people have to pay 5% of car registration, or 3% higher than in other localities. However, the regulation has not helped ease the traffic congestion in big cities. People have been trying to avoid paying high registration fees by making registration under others’ names in other localities which set lower fees. The recent decision by the Ministry of Finance to raise the import tax on cars has also helped in reducing the traffic problem in big cities.

MOF’s plan not welcomed

In order to graple with the pointed out shortcomings, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) has wrapped up the draft regulation to replace the current regulations relating to the registration fee.

The registration fee on land has been proposed by the ministry to lower from 1% to 0.5%, while the fee on cars (with less than 10 seats) to be raised to 10% (as for Hanoi and HCM City, the maximum registration fee may be up to 15%).

The Ministry of Justice thinks that the proposed imposition of the registration fee of 10-15% proves to be overly high.

Le Quoc Dung, Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly’s Finance and Budget Committee, said that it is illogical to impose the registration fee on land. People have to pay the land use right assignment tax and fees for procedures already, and they should not be asked to pay one more type of fee, the registration fee.



source: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/biz/2008/05/785565/