Thailand will collect road tolls from vehicles from ASEAN countries.

The Bangkok Post reported that the Thai government is planning to collect road fees from cars coming from ASEAN countries when entering the country through land border gates.

The plan comes as Thailand is under great pressure to maintain its road system due to increased demand for road travel from neighboring countries.

According to Ms. Wilairat Sirisophonsin - Deputy Director of the Thai Transport Policy and Planning Research Institute, the study on toll collection will have to be completed in December 2017 in order to hopefully be approved in 2018. Then, in January next year, the Thai Ministry of Transport will submit the bill to the National Assembly for approval.

According to the preliminary study, the toll collection will be implemented in three phases. In the first three years, the toll will be applied to foreign cars entering Thailand through 28 border checkpoints with Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia and Laos.

Drivers will also be required to pay a 100 baht fee (about 70,000 VND) to buy an electronic card valid for 5 years, as well as a 42 baht fee (about 29,000 VND) for each time they enter Thailand. Thai authorities will install radio-frequency identification systems to monitor cars entering and leaving Thailand.

From the fourth year onwards, a global positioning system will be introduced to allow Thai authorities to track the exact location of foreign cars.

Not only that, from the 4th year onwards, drivers may be charged up to 1.5 baht (about 1,000 VND) for each kilometer traveled in Thailand.

In the final phase (from year 8 onwards), all vehicles entering Thailand will be subject to the fee, and all remaining border gates will also apply this form of fee collection.

Ms. Wirairat said she will call for social investment in this system, with the total amount for the entire project possibly reaching 525 million baht.

Emphasizing the need for the plan, Ms. Wirairat said that with the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), more cars have entered Thailand by road. As a result, the country has to spend more money on road maintenance and more accidents occur. Specifically, Thailand spends about 15 billion baht per year on road maintenance and 2.4 billion baht per year on traffic accidents.

Last year, 2.1 million cars entered Thailand through 28 border checkpoints. The majority came from Laos (755,000), followed by Malaysia (596,000), Myanmar (495,000) and Cambodia (322,000).

Before Thailand, Malaysia applied this form of fee at the rate of 20 ringgit (about 100,000 VND) for Thai vehicles entering this country.

According to tuoitre.vn