Ministry of Transport abolishes fines for unregistered vehicles and "fake" helmets

In the latest draft (6th time) on administrative sanctions for violations in the field of road and rail traffic that the Ministry of Transport has just announced, the regulations on sanctions for not transferring ownership of a vehicle (also known as a non-owner vehicle) and wearing a "fake" helmet have been removed.

Traffic police conduct inspections and fines for traffic violations.
(Photo: Manh Hung/Vietnam+)

Previously, in the Draft Decree 71 amended by the Ministry of Transport, the fine for non-owner vehicles was stipulated, in which motorbikes ranged from 800,000 to 1.2 million VND and cars from 6-10 million VND.

Immediately after receiving the majority of people's opinions disagreeing with this regulation, the Ministry of Transport proposed to remove the fine, while the Public Security sector firmly wanted to keep this regulation in the draft of the new Decree.

Regarding the above conflicting opinions, in the conference to review the Draft Decree 71 amendment held at the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Justice raised the opinion that penalties must be imposed and included in the Decree, but the timing of penalties and the level of penalties need to be studied appropriately.

Although the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Public Security both agree to penalize unregistered vehicles, in this latest Draft, the Ministry of Transport still firmly refuses to penalize unregistered vehicles.

Mr. Nguyen Van Thuan, Director of the Department of Transport, a member of the Drafting Committee of the revised Decree 71, said: “The Ministry of Transport has received the appraisal opinion of the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry is currently accepting that appraisal opinion and explaining it to the Ministry of Justice.”

Regarding fake helmets, the Ministry of Transport believes that the punishment for wearing fake helmets is not legally sufficient and inappropriate, so it has been removed in the 6th draft. However, those who do not wear helmets or wear helmets but do not fasten the strap will still be fined according to current regulations.

Regarding the above-mentioned penalty issue, the Ministry of Public Security also agrees with the opinion of the Ministry of Transport because according to current regulations, the Traffic Police force when performing its duties only imposes penalties related to helmets including: Not wearing a helmet; wearing a helmet without properly fastening the strap, but there are no regulations on penalizing the wearing of helmets that do not meet quality and standards.

In addition, in this draft, the Ministry of Transport also abolished the penalty for vehicle owners who do not purchase or pay vehicle fees when participating in traffic, which the Ministry previously prescribed, with fines ranging from VND100,000 to VND8 million for each individual and organization.

In addition, the latest draft also stipulates heavy penalties for the act of drinking alcohol while driving; in which, drivers on the road with blood and breath alcohol concentrations of over 50-80 milligrams/100 milliliters of blood or exceeding 0.25-0.4 milligrams/1 liter of breath will be fined from 7-8 million VND.

In addition, the Draft also stipulates that both drivers and business owners who do not install a journey monitoring device (black box) or a black box that does not work, does not follow the issued standards, and does not provide, update, store, or manage information from the journey monitoring device as prescribed will be fined from 3-5 million VND for individuals and from 6-10 million VND for violating organizations.

“If a violation occurs, the driver will not only be fined but also have his/her driving license revoked for 30 days. In addition to being fined, the business will also have its operations suspended for that vehicle until the violation is corrected,” the draft states./.

According to Vietnam+ - LT