VietNamNet Bridge – HCM City has been losing billions of dong every month in car parking fees since it began collecting them through an app last August, according to its Department of Transport.

HCM City is losing billions of dong in fees from cars parked on certain streets after creating an automatic payment app. — Photo nhandan.com.vn

The My Parking app collects fees through drivers’ smart devices when they park on any of 23 streets on districts 1, 5 and 10.

It collected VND220 million (US$10,000) a month in the first three months, though parking data from security cameras on the 23 streets showed the figure should have been VND1.3 billion (US$60,000), the department said.

Local agencies then dispatched staff in November to monitor payments, but to no avail: the loss remained unchanged.

The department blamed this on several reasons like the monitoring staff not acting responsibly and the recent hike in parking fees causing car owners to pay at the old rate directly to the staff, who pocketed it.

Until August 1, the parking fee had been a flat VND5,000 ($ 0.2). Following the hike the fee is VND20,000-25,000 (US$0.88-1.1) per hour for the first two hours, VND25,000-30,000 for the next two and VND30,000-35,000 from the fifth hour onwards.

Overnight parking costs VND150,000-180,000 ($6.5-7.8).

Another reason is that the staff only work during the day, meaning people can park their car all night without paying the fee.

To resolve the problem, the department wants the People’s Committee to dispatch Communist Youth Union members to these places to monitor the fee collection, and plans to install more security cameras on these streets.

Source: VNS