No charges applied to personal vehicles

Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang said so at the regular Government press conference in March 2012. Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang explained that the proposal for a road maintenance fund is implemented according to the Road Law effective from July 1, 2009 and this is not a new initiative of the Ministry of Transport in the current context.

The Minister said that the circulars should have been issued since the Road Law was issued, but due to delays, they were only implemented now. "The fault lies in the fact that the Ministry of Transport has not provided timely, complete, and even unclear information, so the slow information to the people has led to incorrect understanding of the proposed policies," said Minister Dinh La Thang.

Regarding the fee to limit personal vehicles and the fee to limit vehicles entering the city during rush hour, the Ministry of Transport still relies on the recent National Assembly's questioning session to implement. "This is also not the ministry's initiative." Once again, the Minister of Transport emphasized the policy of these fees.

Based on the resolution of the National Assembly, recently, the Ministry of Transport has quickly coordinated with ministries and branches and received feedback from people to develop and submit to the Government solutions to collect traffic fees. However, due to the difficult economic situation, the time of collection has not been proposed. The Minister gave an example of the Road Law which was issued in 2009, but it took a long time to issue a decree, in addition, when issuing a legal document, it takes time to assess the impact of that regulation. "So this year we did not propose, and even if we proposed, there would be no way to collect fees this year" - Minister Thang affirmed.

As for the subjects that collect fees for private vehicles such as cars, there will be about 600,000 vehicles that must collect fees. The estimated revenue from these vehicles is about 12,000 to 15,000 billion VND.

Regarding the fee for motorbikes, the Ministry of Transport confirmed that the fee will only be collected in five major cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hai Phong, Can Tho and only in the inner city, not in all provinces. The poor will be exempted and the fee will be proposed by the People's Committees of the provinces.

Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang said that the fee to limit people's personal vehicles also has the purpose of increasing revenue. The Minister gave an example that Hanoi is currently building 5 overpasses and if there is money, it will invest in 50 more overpasses. "At that time, Hanoi's traffic will be basically improved and congestion will be reduced, and when it is reduced, people will benefit, the benefits will be huge" - the Minister shared.

However, the question for the Minister of Transport is whether the industry foresees that the specific plan of the Ministry when presented to the National Assembly will not be approved. Minister Dinh La Thang said: "It is possible that this project of the Ministry of Transport, even the Government may not approve, but in terms of responsibility, it still has to be done.

And it is also possible that even if the Government approves it, the National Assembly will not approve it. But we try to implement the project with the aim of ensuring good quality, closely following the basis of the resolution and creating consensus among the people."

According to Minister and Head of the Government Office Vu Duc Dam, the Government's view on the two types of fees that the Ministry of Transport submitted to the Government is that this is a matter related to many people, so the Government has assigned relevant ministries and branches to give specific comments. In particular, it is necessary to carefully analyze the purpose and content, as well as assess the impacts on people and the economy to provide scientific and practical arguments to submit to the Prime Minister for consideration. However, at present, these solutions have only stopped at the project of the Ministry of Transport./.

According to VOV