Deputy Prime Minister requests Ministry of Transport to rename BOT "toll stations"

The story of "BOT price or fee" isDeputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue - Head of the Steering Committeeprice management mentioned at the meetingMay 29

Frankly stating that this is a story that has been talked about a lot recently, the Deputy Prime Minister commented,The renaming of BOT "toll station" to "price collection station" by the Ministry of Transport is not accurate, causing a stir in public opinion.

"In fact"Here, we are changing from fee to price, but how to name it correctly and clearly in Vietnamese language needs to be studied. We will update this place," he said and suggested that the Ministry of Transport study and soon update the above name.

Recently, many BOT toll stations have become "price collection stations". Explaining this change, Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The said that according to current regulations, fees are the amount people have to pay when a state agency provides public services, while BOT is a product or service provided by an enterprise, so there is a change in the name to price collection (road usage price). According to him, "this name change does nothing but help make it more flexible".

However, share withVnExpress, Dr. Nguyen Sy Dung - former Deputy Head of the National Assembly Office said that in fact, the name change is a legal loophole, a concept swap. "It is possible to collect fees, taxes... but it is not possible to collect prices because prices are not something that can be collected. Prices are the monetary expression of the value of goods and services. Collecting money is indeed quite obscure and silly," he said.

In addition, the Head of the Price Management Steering Committee also requested the Ministry of Transport to continue reviewing BOT stations that have been settled to reduce prices and road service fees.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Minister of Transport Le Dinh Tho said that BOT stations have basically completed adjustments according to the direction of the Government leaders to "prioritize fee reduction over reducing toll collection time".

The Ministry of Transport will implement two-lane two-way non-stop toll collection and one mixed lane at 78 BOT stations by the end of 2018, and plans to convert all lanes into non-stop toll collection by the end of 2019, ensuring a reduction in labor costs at the stations.

Along with that, the Ministry will strictly control the prices of seaport and aviation services.Encourage the connection of transport modes to avoid pressure on roads.