Why is the BOT Phap Van - Cau Gie Expressway not allowed to release tolls during the 3 days of Tet?

Accordingly, the General Department of Roads has just sent a document requesting the Ministry of Transport to request the BOT Phap Van - Cau Gie Joint Stock Company to collect road service fees on the Phap Van - Cau Gie expressway 24/7, including holidays.

The General Department of Roads said that toll collection on all days of the year, including holidays and weekends, is in accordance with regulations and measures are taken to ensure traffic safety and prevent traffic congestion at toll stations, especially during the 2019 Lunar New Year.

Stopping the collection of road service fees on the Phap Van - Cau Gie route will affect the collection of road service fees on the Cau Gie - Ninh Binh route, because these two routes are currently collecting interconnected fees.

“The proposal of BOT Phap Van - Cau Gie Joint Stock Company not to collect fees for vehicles using single-trip tickets on the Phap Van - Cau Gie route for vehicles using single-trip tickets during the 3 days of Tet, from 0:00 on February 4 to 23:30 on February 6 (from December 30 to the end of the 2nd day of the Lunar New Year) is not stipulated in the BOT contract and other legal documents”, - the document of the General Department of Roads affirmed.

Accordingly, stopping the collection of road tolls on the Phap Van - Cau Gie route will affect the collection of road tolls on the Cau Gie - Ninh Binh route because these two routes are currently collecting interconnected tolls. At the same time, it will affect all road toll stations nationwide.

Regarding this issue, Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Nhat said that the regulation of releasing toll stations of BOT traffic projects during holidays and Tet is a major policy under the authority of the Government. Because this issue is related to the mechanism, a solution needs to be based on the consensus of many ministries and branches, not just the BOT project investor proposing to release the station and implementing it immediately.

“Currently, the Ministry of Transport has stipulated that if the congestion is more than 700m in front of the toll station, the station will be cleared. If the BOT station investor fails to comply, they will be subject to administrative penalties according to the provisions of Decree 46/2016 on administrative penalties for violations in the field of road traffic,” Deputy Minister Nguyen Nhat informed.

Previously, BOT Phap Van - Cau Gie Joint Stock Company sent a document to the Ministry of Transport and the General Department of Roads proposing to exempt tolls at the Phap Van - Cau Gie BOT station during the 3-day Tet holiday, with the aim of helping to reduce congestion at the southern gateway of Hanoi during the Tet holiday, while creating conditions for toll station staff to have Tet holiday with their families.

It is known that BOT Phap Van - Cau Gie Company is one of the "healthy" enterprises when announcing a profit in 2018 of approximately 200 billion VND.

In an interview with the press, Mr. Pham Van Khoi, General Director of BOT Phap Van-Cau Gie Joint Stock Company, said that normally the amount of BOT fees collected on this expressway is about 2 billion VND/day. During Tet, the daily revenue reaches 2.5 billion VND.

Previously, in May 2016, the Traffic Construction Corporation 1 (Cienco 1) issued a statement reflecting that the toll collection at BOT Phap Van-Cau Gie had many unreasonable and fraudulent points. The route has a high traffic density but the average monthly toll revenue is 35 billion VND, about 1.2 billion VND per day, especially in February 2016, the month of Lunar New Year, the number of vehicles is higher but lower than normal months.

Through a 10-day surprise inspection and supervision, the General Department of Roads concluded that during the 10 days of inspection, the total actual toll collection from BOT stations was over 17.5 billion VND, with some days reaching nearly 2 billion VND.

That does not include the ticket revenue in July 2016 and the ticket revenue in the third quarter of 2016 previously collected by BOT Phap Van-Cau Gie Joint Stock Company, which were 5.1 billion VND and 5.77 billion VND respectively.

Thus, the average toll collection through this toll station is up to nearly 2 billion VND per day, much higher than the 1.2 billion VND figure revealed by Cienco 1.