Dr. Nguyen Sy Dung: 'Currently, BOT toll collection is like robbery'

According to Dr. Nguyen Sy Dung, the current BOT toll collection is like a form of extortion; it is impossible to avoid one place and place the toll station in another place like that.

Speaking at the seminar "BOT Project - Policy and Solutions" organized by the Vietnam International Arbitration Center (VIAC) in collaboration with the Institute for Policy, Law and Development Studies (PLD Institute) on the morning of September 8 in Hanoi, Dr. Nguyen Sy Dung, former Deputy Head of the National Assembly Office, said that the current BOT toll collection is like a form of extortion; if people do not travel on BOT roads, there cannot be toll collection; it is impossible to avoid one place and place toll stations elsewhere.

Former Deputy Head of the National Assembly Office - Dr. Nguyen Sy Dung: "Current BOT fee collection is like extortion."

Dr. Nguyen Sy Dung said that current BOT traffic projects (contracts in the form of build-operate-transfer) have many problems, and if not handled soon, instability will occur.

According to Dr. Nguyen Sy Dung, there are 4 instabilities in current BOT contracts, which are:

Regarding the BOT contract, Mr. Nguyen Sy Dung said that all relevant shareholders must have opinions, not just the investor, contractor, and direct management agency. "The biggest shareholder is the national interest, now it is unclear who represents it. Saying that the Ministry of Transport represents the national interest is, sorry, not correct," Dr. Nguyen Sy Dung said.

The second shareholder, according to Dr. Nguyen Sy Dung, must have an opinion, that is the people. Who represents the people? If the National Assembly represents, how should the National Assembly participate?

Third are the transport economists, who are the ones paying the money, the customers. It is impossible that customers cannot have opinions. "Clearly, the customer is God. What kind of God is it that requires you to pay as much as you want? Clearly, in the BOT contract, many BOT shareholders are not allowed to have opinions. I think that from now on, this should be changed," said Dr. Dung.

The seminar "BOT Project - Policy and Solutions" was organized by the Vietnam International Arbitration Center (VIAC) in collaboration with the Institute for Policy, Law and Development Studies (PLD Institute) on the morning of September 8 in Hanoi.

Regarding the solution, former Deputy Head of the National Assembly Office Nguyen Sy Dung said that it is impossible not to handle it, we cannot turn a blind eye. "The first problem is that BOT toll collection is like extortion. If people do not travel on BOT roads, there is no way to collect tolls. It is impossible to avoid one place and put the toll station in another place. This must be fixed now. Paying just one dong is unfair and people do not accept it, so the toll station must be moved, we cannot extort people," Mr. Dung harshly analyzed.

Second, it is impossible to "falsely weigh" for the people. You put a BOT station there, people live around it, but do not use the road you built, but you still set up a toll station. "Each time people pass by, they only travel 2 km of road, but you collect money from them for the whole route, which means you are "falsely weighing" for the people; not to mention that the toll station makes their lives extremely difficult and inconvenient. Therefore, we have to calculate differently and make it free for the people living there," Mr. Dung analyzed.

Third, there must be transparency. "If the road is resurfaced on National Highway 1 and then charged a toll, it needs to be canceled, because people have already paid the road maintenance fee. It is impossible to resurface the road and then charge again. People have already paid the road maintenance fee, so that cannot happen," Mr. Dung expressed.

Next, Dr. Dung said that all BOT contracts must be reviewed. "Because he represents the people and society, but society has not had any opinion, directly involved shareholders have not had any opinion, so they must be reviewed. Any unreasonable expenses must be canceled," said the former Deputy Head of the National Assembly Office.

“The absurd thing about BOT contracts is that they include a “confidentiality” clause. There is no need for a secret in an economic contract. Only “ghosts” like the dark,” said Dr. Nguyen Sy Dung.

From the above analysis, Dr. Nguyen Sy Dung believes that it is necessary to move unreasonable BOT stations to the right location. "You cannot build a bypass to Vinh Yen city on National Highway 2 in Vinh Phuc but place a toll station in Bac Thang Long - Noi Bai. Second, BOT contracts must be made public and transparent for everyone to know and monitor"./.

According to VOV