Thai Minh Giao, Deputy Director of the HCM City Taxation Agency, on July 6, said July 6 was the deadline for Dream Public and Sheen Mega which won the land auction in Thu Thiem to make payments. However, the two companies have not made payments yet.

In principle, the two companies must make payments within 180 days since the day they signed contracts with the HCM City People’s Committee.

Before attending the land auction, Dream Public and Sheen Mega paid a deposit equal to 20 percent of the starting prices of the land plots, VND115 billion and VND203 billion, respectively.

On the basis of the contracts signed by the HCM City People’s Committee and the two companies, on January 6, 2022, the HCM City Taxation Agency released a notice on the payment plan that the two companies had to implement.

Within 30 days since January 6, the auction winners had to pay registration fee and 50 percent of land use fee. In the next 60 days, they had to paid the remaining money.

However, both companies have not made payments yet. Therefore, HCM City has charged a fine on late payment, 0.03 percent per day. It is estimated that the amount of fine is VND2.3 billion per day and has reached hundreds of billions of VND so far.

Thang told VietNamNet that the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment will comply with current regulations and advise the People’s Committee to terminate the contracts. The two companies will lose the deposit money.

"The contract termination time is July 6," Thang said.

Tan Hoang Minh Group, the parent corporation of Ngoi Sao Viet, which won the bid to buy the 3-12 land area in Thu Thiem New Urban Area at the high price of VND24.5 trillion for 10,060 sq m (VND2.4 billion per sq m), also has withdrawn from Thu Thiem land auction, accepting loss of deposit money.

Also, according to Thang, the HCM City People’s Committee has given specific instructions and drawn lessons from the Thu Thiem land auction. 

Anh Phuong