Road tolls for motorcycles will be discontinued.

Recently, the Ministry of Transport submitted a proposal to the Government to temporarily suspend road tolls for motorcycles for further review, but the intention is to abolish them completely in the near future.

On the afternoon of October 13th, at a press conference held by the Ministry of Transport, Deputy Minister Nguyen Hong Truong provided further information on this matter.

According to Deputy Minister Truong, when introducing the road toll regulations for motorcycles, the Ministry of Transport also sought broad public opinion, including the provision that: All money collected through road tolls from motorcycles will be left to local authorities for the maintenance and repair of local roads. Previously, we had also collected tolls from motorcycles at toll stations, but this practice was discontinued due to increased traffic congestion.

Deputy Minister Truong also affirmed that the road toll for motorbikes is not due to these vehicles causing damage to the roads. The purpose of collecting the toll is to encourage people to contribute their small part to the nation's efforts in upgrading and repairing roads.

The Ministry of Transport has announced that it will end the collection of road tolls from motorcycles.

(Photo: KT)

According to Deputy Minister Nguyen Hong Truong's calculations, at the time the road toll collection plan for motorcycles was drawn up, there were 30 million motorcycles nationwide; this number has now increased to 45 million. While road tolls collected from cars only amount to 4,500 billion VND annually, if the collection is implemented correctly and fully at an average of 70,000 VND per vehicle per year, the country will collect over 3,000 billion VND annually from motorcycles. "This is a significant amount, contributing greatly to the maintenance and repair of local roads," Deputy Minister Nguyen Hong Truong stated.

However, according to Deputy Minister Nguyen Hong Truong, during the process of collecting road tolls from motorcycles, due to the lack of regulations, when implementing the collection, with the motto of bringing it to communes and wards for combined collection, in reality some people paid while others did not.

Meanwhile, the lack of penalties leads to situations where some people initially comply but then fail to do so, making it impossible to take action, along with other obstacles. As a result, localities report collection rates of only 15% - 20%, decreasing over the years, with revenue insufficient to cover the expenses of those collecting the fees on their behalf.

“The suspension of toll collection also fulfills the wishes of a large number of people. The Ministry of Transport also affirmed that when road tolls for motorcycles are stopped, localities without revenue sources will have to balance their own funds to maintain local roads. Recently, the Ministry of Transport submitted to the Government a proposal to temporarily suspend road toll collection for motorcycles for further study, but the aim is to abolish it completely, because even if sanctions are imposed, localities will still argue that the increasing average per capita income will compensate for this fee, while toll collection for cars will continue,” Deputy Minister Nguyen Hong Truong said.

It is known that during the three years of implementing road tolls for motorcycles, the amount collected was not significant. In 2013-2014, the whole country collected over 550 billion VND each year, and in the first half of 2015, it collected nearly 175 billion VND.

According to VOV.VN