National Highway 1A has a toll station every 62km.

Along with the high density, the issue that worries the National Assembly Standing Committee is transparency when most BOT projects are currently assigned to investors in the form of designated bidding.

The above concerns were raised by Chairman of the National Assembly's Economic Committee - Nguyen Van Giau at the 50th session of the National Assembly Standing Committee on the morning of July 11. Today's working session mainly spent time evaluating the results of the implementation of the National Assembly's Resolution on the 2016 Socio-Economic Development Plan in the first 6 months of the year and proposing and recommending implementation in the second half of the year.

Mr. Nguyen Van Giau - Chairman of the Economic Committee is concerned about the issue of transparency when most BOT projects are assigned contractors.

Stating the concerns of people and businesses regarding investment management and toll collection on national highways, the leader of the Economic Committee commented that “toll collection is not transparent and the density of toll stations on National Highway 1A is too high for BOT projects, causing concerns for businesses and people”.

Mr. Giau said that the Ministry of Transport has just sent a report of more than 100 pages to the Economic Committee explaining this issue. "After reading all 100 pages, statistics show that National Highway 1A has up to 37 toll stations. Thus, every 62km there is a BOT station," Mr. Giau said. He also emphasized that the more noteworthy and worrying issue is that most investors are appointed contractors.

Also stating that BOT fee collection is causing great resentment among the people, Mr. Nguyen Duc Hai - Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee commented that the construction of projects is facing many unreasonable issues.“Many routes are the only ones that allow BOT projects and toll collection, leaving people with no choice but to pass through. This has caused frustration and created a huge burden for people, unreasonably increasing business operating costs and reducing the competitiveness of the economy,” said Mr. Nguyen Duc Hai.

Leaders of both Committees have the same recommendation that the Government needs to urgently review and evaluate the effectiveness of infrastructure investment projects under the BOT form."There needs to be a reasonable adjustment to the service fee schedule to reduce the cost burden for businesses and people," Mr. Nguyen Van Giau proposed.

People and businesses are upset with the fees collected at BOT stations that are not suitable to reality.

In addition, Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee - Nguyen Duc Hai also said that after the review, the Government needs to report to the National Assembly on the implementation of BOT projects, especially the shortcomings and problems in toll collection management.

Recently, the Ministry of Planning and Investment has sent a report to the Prime Minister outlining the limitations and shortcomings of the BOT investment model in transport projects. According to regulations, the distance between toll stations on the same route must be at least 70km, but on some routes, investors shorten this distance and still set up toll stations, causing people to pay high fees.

Typically, the Hanoi - Thai Binh highway is less than 100 km long, but has 4 BOT toll stations. Or the route from Dak Nong province to Mien Dong Bus Station (HCMC) is only 330 km long but has 8 toll stations, on average, there is a station every 40 km.

In particular, some roads invested with budget capital do not apply toll collection or have expired toll collection but the investors renovate and upgrade to continue to collect tolls, causing many of these stations to "revive".

“At BOT traffic projects, the situation of placing toll stations not in accordance with regulations is causing frustration among people and transport businesses, causing the policy of socializing basic construction to be misunderstood,” the report of the Ministry of Planning and Investment stated.

Responding to the press, Mr. Do Van Quoc - Director of the Finance Department (Ministry of Transport) said that it is impossible to apply the condition of a distance of 70km between toll stations because traffic projects have many special features such as tunnels, bridges replacing pontoon bridges, road projects passing through densely populated areas... "In case the distance between toll stations does not meet the 70km distance, the Ministry of Transport will have a document requesting agreement with the People's Committees of the provinces and the Ministry of Finance", Mr. Quoc informed.

Regarding the unreasonable BOT fees being collected, the Director of the Finance Department explained that the calculation is based on many factors, such as project scale, total investment... and is within the fee collection framework of the Ministry of Finance.

According to VNE