New cars may be exempt from initial vehicle inspection starting in 2023.
The Vietnam Registering and Inspection Department has just submitted a plan to the Ministry of Transport to exempt new cars from initial inspection for one year from the year of manufacture. Previously, the Traffic Police Department had also made this proposal.
New cars will be exempt from vehicle inspection for one year.
According to information released on the morning of December 28th, a representative from the Vietnam Registering and Inspection Department stated that, after six months of impact assessment combined with research on technical factors and real-world data, the Department has compiled and submitted to the Ministry of Transport a plan to exempt newly manufactured, assembled, and imported automobiles from initial registration for one year from the year of manufacture.
The above proposal has been registered by the Vietnam Register in the Ministry of Transport's 2023 legislative drafting program and is currently in the process of drafting amendments to Circular 16/2021/TT-BGTVT in December 2022, and if approved, could be implemented in early 2023.
Previously, in May 2022, the Traffic Police Department (Ministry of Public Security) sent a document to the Vietnam Registering and Inspection Department requesting adjustments to several aspects, most notably the proposal to exempt newly manufactured vehicles still under manufacturer's warranty from inspection.
The reason given by the Traffic Police Department is that imported, domestically produced, and assembled vehicles have already undergone technical safety and environmental protection inspections before being sold on the market; therefore, vehicle registration for new vehicles is not really necessary.
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Waiving vehicle inspection fees for new cars would save hundreds of billions of dong annually. (Photo: Hoang Hiep) |
"Immediately after the Traffic Police Department proposed considering exempting road motor vehicles still under manufacturer's warranty from the initial technical safety inspection, the Vehicle Registration Department established a working group to study the above content."
"In addition, based on the directives of the Minister of Transport at the Ministry's briefing meeting in December 2022, after compiling research results from actual data, the working group of the Vietnam Register has urgently carried out an assessment of the impacts and tasks that need to be implemented," a representative of the Department said.
According to the Vietnam Registering and Inspection Agency, research results compiled and evaluated from inspection units nationwide show that the failure rate for vehicles requiring maintenance and repair for re-inspection is very low (0.17-0.31%). Therefore, exempting new vehicles from inspection is reasonable.
Regarding the study of regulations, warranty periods, and storage times before products reach consumers, the Vehicle Registration Department proposes that these only apply to vehicles inspected within one year of their manufacture.
Explaining this, a representative from the Vehicle Registration Department stated that the reason for long-term storage in warehouses and yards is due to the issue.(over 1 year - PV)This can cause damage, wear and tear, and reduced technical performance of many parts of the car such as plastics, rubber, lubricants, electronic components, etc. In this case, inspection is still required before use.
The Vehicle Registration Department also emphasized that while the plan only exempts vehicles from technical and environmental inspections, vehicle registration still requires documentation. During the process of creating vehicle records, the registration unit will verify vehicle identification and compare the vehicle's technical identification specifications with the manufacturing, assembly, and import databases to ensure effective state management.
Saving hundreds of billions every year.
Although waiving the initial vehicle inspection fee for new vehicles may affect the revenue of vehicle inspection units, the Vietnam Registering Authority considers this option highly feasible, while also saving significant time, effort, and money for the public and society.
Experts believe that, with the current size of the new car market in Vietnam at over 500,000 vehicles per year, if all new cars were required to undergo inspection at the current fee of 340-610 thousand VND per vehicle, the amount of money spent by individuals and businesses on new car inspections would reach hundreds of billions of VND annually, not including the time, effort, and other costs.
However, waiving the initial technical safety and environmental protection inspection means increasing the responsibility of manufacturers, assemblers, and importers.
Specifically, because there is no technical safety and environmental protection inspection, a situation may arise where motor vehicles, after reaching the hands of the public, are arbitrarily modified, resulting in the vehicle deviating from the manufacturer's design before being submitted to the vehicle registration unit for registration, without being detected in time.
Therefore, ensuring the technical safety and environmental protection of motor vehicles is primarily the responsibility of the vehicle manufacturer, importer, owner, and driver. In addition, insurance companies need to cooperate with the manufacturer and owner to determine liability and compensation when insurance claims arise.
According to the draft amendments and additions to Circular 16 currently being prepared by the Vietnam Registering Agency, the first-time registration process for new automobiles at vehicle inspection units will follow these steps:
- Step 1:The vehicle owner brings it to the vehicle inspection unit.
Step 2The vehicle inspection unit will use the chassis number, engine number, vehicle registration certificate, certificate of technical safety and environmental protection for imported motor vehicles, or a copy of the vehicle's factory quality inspection certificate to look up the vehicle's technical specifications from the database directly.
The inspection unit downloads the data and records it in the inspection database. The downloaded data is the original technical specifications of the vehicle and cannot be modified.
Step 3The vehicle inspection unit enters administrative information, takes actual photos of the vehicle, only checks vehicle identification, and creates a vehicle file for the vehicle, prints the inspection certificate (with QR code), inspection sticker, and road usage fee sticker. They do not perform technical safety and environmental protection checks on the vehicle's equipment at the inspection unit and do not charge for the inspection service.
Step 4Vehicle owners pay the certificate issuance fee and road usage fee as stipulated per vehicle.
Step 5:The vehicle inspection unit affixes the inspection sticker and road usage fee sticker to the vehicle and issues an inspection certificate to the vehicle owner, or issues an appointment slip for the issuance of the inspection certificate for vehicles that have only been issued an appointment slip for vehicle registration.
