Car registration requires opening a bank account

Imbalance between vehicles and transport infrastructure

According to statistics, the average annual growth rate of cars in Hanoi is 10.2%, and that of motorbikes is 6.7% (Hanoi Police are managing 6.39 million vehicles, including: 693,672 cars; 5,568,686 motorbikes, 134,092 electric motorbikes, 202 cyclos and 88 electric cars). Meanwhile, the city's traffic infrastructure development rate is only at an average of 3.9%, and the land area for traffic is still low, only reaching about 8.6% - 8.9% of urban construction land.

"The unbalanced development between personal vehicles and traffic infrastructure, along with the low traffic awareness of a segment of the population, leads to traffic congestion and environmental pollution, affecting people's lives as well as the socio-economic development of the capital," said a report by Hanoi City.

In addition, the public passenger transport network has been adjusted appropriately and expanded but is still limited. Although the service quality has been improved, Hanoi leaders believe that it still does not meet the requirements. Only one rapid bus route - BRT01 (Kim Ma - Yen Nghia Bus Station) has been put into operation. The urban railway routes are still under construction and have not been completed and put into operation yet...

From the above shortcomings and problems, the Hanoi People's Committee also proposed that the Ministry of Public Security direct relevant professional units to develop and report to competent authorities to issue regulations on vehicle registration, in which there must be an account opened at a bank and a suitable driving license to deduct from the bank account for cases of traffic safety violations that are handled by "cold" fines. This proposal immediately received many different opinions.

What is the legal basis?

From a legal perspective, Lawyer Truong Thanh Duc - Vietnam International Arbitration Center (VIAC), said that the current law does not have any regulations requiring citizens to open accounts, so the above regulation is not appropriate. In addition, this regulation cannot be approved by the Ministry of Public Security or the Government but must be considered and approved by the National Assembly because it is related to the rights of the people.

"The requirement must be based on legal grounds, especially regulations for people to choose which service is beneficial and convenient, not mandatory right away," said lawyer Truong Thanh Duc.

Lawyer Truong Thanh Duc analyzed that if that account only serves to punish traffic violations, it is unreasonable because people have to pay a large amount of money, if not used, it will cause waste for society, citizens, businesses...

“Don’t compare Vietnam with European countries, because from children to the elderly in these countries, everyone uses credit cards, they don’t use cash. Therefore, this payment is the people’s choice, not a mandatory regulation,” said Mr. Duc.

If we want to implement transparency and fight corruption, Lawyer Truong Thanh Duc said that the National Assembly must consider a closed process for paying money through bank accounts for expenses such as road maintenance fees, vehicle registration, gasoline purchases, etc. Traffic fines are a small amount compared to the above expenses and the number of violations is not much.

Recommended, not required

In 2016, Hanoi City Police proposed a regulation requiring car owners to open bank accounts to serve the purpose of handling traffic violations.

According to the leader of Hanoi City Police, opening an account will facilitate the process of handling traffic violations. Thereby, the car seller will force the car buyer to transfer the name as well as the account, because if not, the account will be deducted.

However, representatives of relevant units still disagree with these proposals and to implement them, it is necessary to amend the Road Traffic Law.

From an economic perspective, Associate Professor Dr. Ngo Tri Long, an economic-financial expert, said that the above proposal is consistent with the policy of encouraging people not to use cash to be transparent, fight corruption and loss through opening accounts. However, the opening of this account needs to be considered and people's opinions should be surveyed.

“Because when the above regulation is issued, car users almost have to “bet” a sum of money into their accounts, which will affect their daily lives. Therefore, it is necessary to calculate appropriately to benefit the people… and limit the situation of “cutting in half” by law enforcement forces,” expert Ngo Tri Long analyzed.

For cases of delay in paying fines or late payment of traffic violation fines, according to Mr. Long, there are many measures to limit such as: calculating interest rates according to banks...

Some other experts said that the above proposal would be convenient, reduce time and procedures for people to pay fines. However, it is not possible to force people, but it is necessary to encourage people to have the right to choose, especially there needs to be a roadmap. Because this is an issue related to many subjects, from individuals, businesses to state agencies.

In case of dispute, when a car of a ministry or agency violates and is fined, money will be deducted from the account of that ministry or agency. So who will pay for that deducted amount? When the money taken from the state agency is the people's tax money and according to regulations, people's tax money will not be used to pay for illegal acts.

From the above analysis, many experts believe that it is necessary to consult people before issuing regulations requiring car registration to open a bank account./.