Many BOT investors 'catch thieves bare-handed' and collect multiple fees

Most investors only have 11-15% of their own capital, the rest depends on banks, so when risks occur, the State and people may have to bear bad debt.

A series of policy shortcomings in BOT traffic investment activities have just been raised by the State Audit, management agencies and experts at the workshop this morning, September 15.

According to data from the State Bank, bank capital is pouring into BOT projects in large quantities, accounting for 85-90% of total investment. Thus, although participating as investors, they actually only have very modest capital resources. According to the State Bank representative, the proportion of equity capital in the project is 15% for the better-off units, while the majority only has 10-11%. "Some investors are not even able to contribute enough capital as committed, leading to the suspension of implementation," the State Bank representative said.

According to experts, state management agencies have had many lax policies regarding BOT investment activities. Photo: HC

Mr. Nguyen Duc Kien - Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly's Economic Committee also said that the lack of financial capacity of private investors is a big problem. According to him, the mistake of the State management agency is to guarantee investors by letting them borrow too much from banks. He said that BOT investors are usually capitalists with large capital but the investment sector in their field is saturated in terms of profit potential, so they invest in BOT projects, not "catching thieves with bare hands" like in Vietnam.

Deputy Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Planning and Investment Le Quoc Dat also raised the issue of duplicate toll collection that is currently causing public outrage. According to him, most vehicles have to pay road use fees, but for example, when traveling on National Highway 1, they have to pay BOT fees because there is no other choice. "Every time you go on the road, you lose money. Otherwise, the only way is to fly because there is no other parallel road," he said.

Mr. Ngo Van Quy - Chief Auditor of State Audit IV - the unit assigned to audit BOT projects also mentioned the "monopoly" of BOT contractors on main national highways.According to him, to be effective, we must choose BOT investment for new road construction projects, not monopolize them like now, so that people have the right to choose whether to go or not. "If the road under the BOT project is good, they choose it, otherwise, they will go another way. Only then will investors find ways to do it at the lowest cost to attract traffic instead of monopolizing the road like now," Mr. Quy said.

This State Audit representative also frankly pointed out the shortcomings in selecting investors. Projects are mainly assigned rather than bid, according to Mr. Quy, only because of the eternal reason of "urgent need". He and experts believe that the State should participate right from the beginning of the pre-feasibility and feasibility studies, then select investors instead of leaving it all to the private sector.

In addition, many experts also raised the issue of "asking - giving" in BOT. According to regulations, the minimum distance between toll stations is 70 km, but in reality, there are still sections of road 50 km apart or even 15-30 km with a station. "If the minimum distance of 70 km is stipulated, we must find every way to implement it. Why is the regulation adding a soft mechanism that, if it is less than 70 km, the investor can negotiate with the People's Committee of the province or city to submit to the Ministry of Finance for such decision?", Mr. Quy stated and on behalf of the State Audit proposed to immediately remove this soft mechanism.

In addition, one of the shortcomings is that there is currently no mechanism to control toll revenue. For example, the station at Phap Van - Cau Gie reported an incorrect revenue of up to 500 million VND per day. Not to mention, Mr. Quy said, when determining the number of vehicles in circulation to prepare a toll collection financial project, many projects hired consultants to count vehicles for only 2 days representing all 365 days. "Like some National Highway 14 in the Central Highlands, counting vehicles for 2 days during the rainy season and coffee season will be very different from normal. So this counting method is very inaccurate and needs to be adjusted," Mr. Quy said.

Therefore, both the State Audit and the State Bank have recommended accelerating the implementation of non-stop toll collection to improve transparency. Meanwhile, representatives of the State Bank and most experts believe that the State Audit needs to continue to investigate and clarify compliance with regulations on the order of formulating estimates and final settlement of BOT projects.

According to VNE