HÀ NỘI – Most farmers in the country will enjoy either full exemptions or a 50-per cent reduction in annual agricultural land use tax from 2017, according to a draft proposal on agriculture land use tax.

Currently, more than 10 million hectares of agriculture land has the full tax imposed on it, accounting for 38 per cent of the country’s agricultural land. The remaining 62 per cent is either exempt from the tax or enjoys reduction.

According to the proposal, tax reductions and exemptions would be applied to farmers and other individuals or entities to encourage people and businesses to take part in large-scale agricultural production.

At present, total tax reductions and exemptions for agricultural land use are worth VNĐ7 trillion (US$318 million).

The move aims at directly supporting farmers. The money they save can be re-invested in agricultural production, or to apply advanced technologies and techniques to create products of better quality, the draft said.

The proposal said that only a few individuals and entities will have to pay agriculture land use tax. A 50-per cent reduction in annual agricultural land use tax will be imposed on land that the State has allocated to economic, political, sociopolitical, socio-occupational, administrative organisations and other organisations if these organisations use the land for agricultural production.

If these organisations simply manage the land and do not use it for agricultural production but transfer the land to other organisations and individuals for agricultural production, they will have the land seized and be required to pay the full agricultural land use tax before the State seizes the land.

The exemptions of the tax will be applied to agricultural land that the State has allocated to the people’s armed forces.

Revisions, supplements to 2015 Penal Code

A draft law on amendments and supplements to the 2015 Penal Code was submitted to the 14th National Assembly (NA) for consideration yesterday morning during the parliament’s second session.
Speaking at the plenum, Minister of Justice Lê Thanh Long said the Penal Code No. 100/2015/QH13 was approved by the 13th NA at its 10th session on November 27, 2015. It was scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2016.
However, while implementing the 13th NA’s Resolution No. 109/2015/QH13 on enforcing this Code, agencies found technical errors and unsuitable regulations. On June 29, 2016, the 13th parliament issued a resolution on delaying the enforcement of the 2015 Penal Code and three other laws.
The proposed draft law aims to revise all technical errors and inapplicable regulations in the 2015 Penal Code to ensure consistency among its regulations and in the legal system while protecting the rights of organisations and individuals, Long said.
The proposed revisions and supplements relate to 141 articles, including 38 articles with technical mistakes and 102 others with content problems. One article was proposed to be abolished, he added.
In a report verifying the draft, the NA’s Committee for Judicial Affairs agreed with the necessity of issuing a law amending and supplementing some articles of the 2015 Penal Code.
Almost all members of the committee asked the legislature to scrutinise the draft law in the second session and approve it in the next sitting due to the draft’s wide coverage and the varying viewpoints of relevant ministries.
They also shared the Government’s point of view that the amendment must not affect major policies already approved by the 13th NA and not lead to the revision of laws with their enforcement delayed at the same time with the 2015 Penal Code.
The committee also asked for the amendment to cover all mistakes so that no more errors can be found after the draft law comes into force. It is also necessary to revise regulations that may cause varying ways of application and have content that is unclear or contradicts specialised laws. --VNS