'Fed up' with BOT fees

At the online discussion and exchange program "Policies, laws and effectiveness of BOT projects" organized by the People's Representative Newspaper on May 30, guest journalist Tran Dang Tuan cited some opinions of people who disagreed with the idea that vital traffic routes must be built by the state with tax money and should not be tolled.

Illustration photo. Source: Internet

People should have the right to choose to use the national highway or BOT road. However, currently, in reality, there are very few BOT roads parallel to the national highway, leading to the tendency to force people to pay fees to use BOT roads, narrowing the choice.

Explaining this, the representative of the Ministry of Transport, Deputy Minister Nguyen Hong Truong, affirmed: The Ministry of Transport always gives people options, people can use the highway, or not. If they use the highway, people have to pay higher fees. For example, the Phap Van - Cau Gie highway is parallel to National Highway 1, if people do not use this highway, they can still use National Highway 1 without paying a fee.

In addition, regarding the Hanoi - Hai Phong expressway parallel to National Highway 5, National Highway 5 should have been free for the people but is still collecting tolls, Deputy Minister Nguyen Hong Truong said that it is right that the Hanoi - Hai Phong expressway be completely renewed and collect tolls, but the old Highway 5 is degraded while the budget to invest in repairing and renewing this road is not available, so the upgrading of Highway 5 must also be carried out in the form of BOT and must collect tolls to recover capital.

However, the fee on National Highway 5 is decided by the Ministry of Finance based on the average income of the people at each time. From the fee of 10,000 VND/trip in the year 2000, it corresponded to an average income of 500 USD/year. But now, the average income per capita of our country is about 2,000 USD/year, so the fee increased by about 3 - 3.5 times (about 35,000 VND/trip), taking into account the income of the people at the low average level, not the high average level, because if it was at the high level as prescribed by the Ministry of Finance, the fee on National Highway 5 should be 52,000 VND/trip.

“So there is no right choice for the people here, but the people’s choice is at a very reasonable fee level, meaning they only have to pay a very low fee. For example, on National Highway 5, the fee is only about 0.5 – 0.7 compared to the fee level set by the Ministry of Finance to show that this fee level has been calculated appropriately,” Deputy Minister Nguyen Hong Truong explained.

Another issue raised by the guests is whether there is a case of collecting tolls on old roads and bridges to compensate for BOT projects on new roads and bridges? And why doesn't the State have a clear investment channel to maintain, upgrade, and repair national highways so that people can choose to use old national highways or use higher-end services, including BOT roads?

Deputy Minister Nguyen Hong Truong said that collecting fees from old projects to compensate for new projects is an acceptable solution when ensuring the rights and interests of the state, people and businesses. Because if fees are only collected on BOT routes, vehicles will definitely go on non-toll roads, and thus investors will not have enough capacity to invest in new roads.

Therefore, the government has come up with a solution to allow investment in upgrading both the old route and building the new route at the same time; the collected money will be divided equally between the two routes. Although the fee is collected from both sides, the fee is only equivalent to that collected from one side to share the toll collection time, while still ensuring that people do not have to bear the burden of the fee during the project implementation.

Referring to the issue of toll collection management from BOT projects, Journalist Tran Dang Tuan cited the recent dispute between the joint venture investors of the BOT Phap Van - Cau Gie project about the daily toll collection on the route with different figures. Therefore, the inspection and control of the management agency is extremely necessary to clearly determine and give accurate figures on traffic volume and revenue, thereby calculating the correct toll collection time of the project.

Sharing about this, Deputy Minister Nguyen Hong Truong pointed out: The collection of BOT project fees is controlled by 4 agencies including: Project investors; Ministry of Transport controls against loss; tax agencies control revenue and commercial banks need to know revenue to recover capital. In these 4 controlling agencies, the statistics must be completely identical.

Furthermore, at the present, semi-automatic toll stations are conducted using electronic technology. All barriers that want to be lifted for vehicles to pass must have an electronic card inserted into the scanner, the camera simultaneously captures that image and the computer collects the amount that vehicle must pay. All are entered into very strict management software.

Regarding the disagreement at Phap Van - Cau Gie station, Deputy Minister Nguyen Hong Truong said that the new investor's intention to control the revenue and expenditure issue before buying back shares is within its authority. However, the inspection method must comply with the provisions of the law. Using a camera system for monitoring but without any agency verifying it is completely unreasonable.

“The Ministry of Transport has explained to investors about the control at Phap Van - Cau Gie station. The control completely meets the requirements of accuracy and transparency, there is no need to set up another camera system. Because setting up monitoring equipment without an inspection agency will be inaccurate and not within the authority. Up to now, the investors' concerns have been resolved,” said Deputy Minister Nguyen Hong Truong./.

According to VOV