Road maintenance fee collection: Efforts to bring the policy into life

(Baonghean) - Issued and effective since 2013, the collection of road usage fees has not yet really created a habit and awareness of responsibility for paying fees among the people. Due to the increasing demand for use and the urgent need to maintain and repair traffic infrastructure, it is necessary to promote propaganda, mobilization, and raise the sense of responsibility of each citizen towards the interests and assets of the community.

From good practices

The Provincial People's Council supervises the use of road maintenance funds to upgrade and renovate Xo Viet Road and Road 540, Kim Lien Commune section.

Yen Thanh district is a locality with the lowest road toll collection results in 2013 in the whole province. However, in 2014, Yen Thanh had a spectacular "comeback" when it rose to the top of the districts, cities and towns with the highest results in road toll collection. This is evidence of a clear change in people's awareness of the rights and obligations of traffic participants under the strong direction of authorities at all levels. With a methodical and creative implementation method, Vinh Thanh commune is the leading unit in Yen Thanh district in collecting motorbike tolls. The completion rate of the target for both 2013 and 2014 was 99,769,000 VND out of 118,800,000 VND, reaching 84.55%.

In particular, the completion rate in 2014 alone was up to 98.8%. In the first months of 2015, there were no specific targets, but the commune urged and mobilized people to pay fees, and collected fees from 453 motorbikes, reaching 38,950,000 VND (in 2014, fees were collected from 824 motorbikes, in 2013, fees were collected from 604 motorbikes). Comrade Nguyen Thanh Hung, Vice Chairman of Vinh Thanh Commune People's Committee (Yen Thanh), said: Right from the first year of implementation, Vinh Thanh has made great efforts and urgently participated so that this new policy can quickly reach the people. Vinh Thanh's experience can be summarized in three words: Pioneer, coordination and flexibility. The pioneering spirit is reflected in the key cadres who take the lead and pay road usage fees well to set an example for all people.

Next, there is synchronous and smooth coordination between organizations and unions to urge and mobilize people to respond to the policy of collecting road use fees; promote the operation of the model combining village chiefs with police officers from the investigation and survey of the number of vehicles; propaganda; collecting fees and checking the payment of fees to each household. Finally, there is flexibility and creativity in "praise - criticism" to create motivation for people to pay fees. For example, including the annual task completion target of the blocks and villages; including the criteria for considering support regimes and funds of organizations and unions. According to regulations, 15% of the total amount collected will be allocated to the locality to pay for propaganda and fee collection, of which 5% is used by the commune to support the team directly collecting fees at households - a small amount but an encouragement and recognition for the sense of responsibility for the benefit of the community.

Another locality is Nam Dan Town - a unit with a high collection rate in Nam Dan district with a plan assigned for 2 years 2013 and 2014 of 103 million VND, has collected 75 million VND, reaching 71%. In each meeting, road toll collection is an indispensable content, commune officials remind and urge each hamlet. That close direction spreads down to each household through direct mobilization of hamlet chiefs. Mr. Pham Hai Duong, Head of Phan Boi Chau hamlet - the hamlet with the highest collection results in town, said: "Mobilizing and propagating people to implement a new type of fee will certainly encounter many difficulties, officials need to have a gentle and flexible attitude when explaining so that people understand the benefits they enjoy from paying the fee, but must also firmly require people to implement it as a responsibility and obligation to the community".

Collecting road fees at Nghe An Motor Vehicle Inspection Center. Photo: Sy Minh

In Nam Dan district, there are many units such as Van Dien, Khanh Son, Hung Tien, Nam Thuong that have also achieved high results in collecting road use fees. Affirming the locality's determination to collect road use fees in a synchronous and thorough manner, comrade Nguyen Hong Son, Vice Chairman of Nam Dan District People's Committee, said that he had "not let the mechanism of "oil spill" from individuals with a sluggish and evasive attitude lead to a negative mass effect on the community". Especially for Nam Dan - the hometown of President Ho Chi Minh and also a key district in the new rural construction program, creating the right awareness among the people about the civic duty towards the interests and assets of the community is of great significance. With the drastic and synchronous participation, in 2013 Nam Dan collected 1 billion 643 million VND, reaching 84% of the assigned target and in 2014 it was 1 billion 960 million VND for motorbikes.

And the disadvantages:

Regarding the situation of collecting road use fees for motorbikes in the province, there is still a large gap between the collected amount and the estimated target. For both 2013 and 2014, the total revenue reached 36.14 billion VND. Of which, in 2013, 10.324 billion VND was collected, reaching 33.43% of the assigned estimate; in 2014, 25.759 billion VND was collected, reaching 70.69% of the assigned estimate. An objective reason explaining the limited results in 2013 is that the first year of implementation of collection was at the end of the year, causing difficulties in collecting additional fees in 2014. There are two subjective reasons leading to difficulties in implementing road use fee collection, including: First, the results of the investigation and survey of the number of vehicles in the area are still based on legal management data, in reality there is a difference with the number of vehicles actually circulating in the area, causing difficulties in completing the assigned targets. In many cases, vehicles are registered and managed on paper in the locality, but circulate in other areas, or the transactions and ownership changes cannot be thoroughly controlled by the locality.

Second, there are no specific, detailed sanctions to handle cases of late payment or non-payment of fees. Or to be more precise, although the Ministry of Finance has issued Circular 186/2013/TT-BTC clearly stipulating that violators of fee payment will be fined from 500,000 - 1,000,000 VND, in reality it is very difficult to implement because "who will implement and how to implement"? There is still no sanction to stop vehicles participating in traffic for vehicle owners who do not pay road use fees. In terms of vertical sectors, this is an issue under the Transport sector, but there is a difference in nature and legal definition between not paying road use fees and violations such as not wearing helmets, not buying vehicle insurance, etc., so the control and punishment of people who do not pay road fees is not under the authority of the traffic police force.

Thus, the rate of road use fee collection is still low compared to the estimated target and compared to the need for maintenance and repair of the transport infrastructure system in the context of rapid socio-economic development. To improve the results of road use fee collection, the issuance and application of measures, sanctions and deterrence are only immediate solutions that are more or less coercive, in the long run the policy will not really come into life. Road use fee collection is useful and inevitable, that is indisputable. But how useful it is, that is what people need to see in order to understand the necessity of this obligation. The core of the problem lies in the purpose and method of using the fund from road use fees.

(To be continued)

Thuc Anh - Thanh Nga