Proposal to postpone the implementation of road maintenance fees

The implementation of road maintenance fees has been approved by the Prime Minister and will take effect on June 1. The Ministry of Transport has also submitted to the Government a number of other fees, including vehicle circulation fees and fees for cars entering the city center during rush hour. At the meeting between transport enterprises and the Hanoi Transport Association on March 22, transport enterprises continued to request a delay in implementation time as well as appropriate fee levels.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Nhat, Director of a container freight company with 29 vehicles in operation, said that the company is having difficulty with orders, and the vehicles are also deteriorating because there is not much money left to invest in new vehicles; gasoline prices have increased, but freight rates have not increased immediately. Now that they have to pay so many fees at once, it will be very difficult for the company to ensure efficiency and revenue.

Transport businesses are on edge with the new fee.
Internet photo

Sharing the same view, Mr. Hoang Quang Ngoc, Director of Hoang Ha Transport Company, said that with container trucks, the company will have to pay 1.4 million VND/month for road maintenance fees, and must pay once every 6 months for vehicle inspection. Thus, with 50 vehicles of the company all having to go through vehicle inspection once and pay the fee once, the amount has reached several hundred million VND. This is a large amount of money for the business.

Mr. Ngoc also believes that the current toll collection method still has many shortcomings, for example, vehicles that run a lot and vehicles that run a little have to pay, even vehicles that have to be repaired for a whole month still have to pay the toll. Therefore, Mr. Ngoc believes that it is necessary to distinguish between personal vehicles and business vehicles, business vehicles create jobs, serve social needs, and should not be lumped together.

Chairman of Noi Bai Taxi Cooperative, Mr. Tran Quoc Khai, suggested that the government should review the fees, because currently in developed countries around the world, public transport is still given priority, even subsidized, while in our country the fees are increased. Foreign transport fares are cheap because their car prices are low, while in Vietnam, car prices are already expensive, with many fees and taxes, so the fares are high, causing difficulties for both businesses and people.

Faced with urgent difficulties regarding fees, automobile transport businesses all have a common proposal for the Ministry of Transport and relevant agencies to review fees, with the immediate request for road maintenance fees to be postponed until 2013, and to collect only 60% of the current proposed level... as recommended by the Hanoi Transport Association.

In addition, representatives of businesses all said that if there is collection, modern technology must be applied, such as collection by chip or through gasoline, to avoid disadvantages for broken vehicles that have to stay in the workshop, or it can be collected monthly or collected as the vehicle goes... The collected money must be used for the right purpose, bringing the most practical benefits to the people.

The Hanoi Transport Association has also sent a petition to the Ministry of Transport and related ministries to propose on collecting road maintenance fees. Accordingly, it is proposed to postpone the fee collection period to January 1, 2013; the fee collection in 2013 is equal to 60% of the current proposed level; strive to collect by card by 2014...

According to VNA