Many people must have taken a deep sigh of relief as the Ministry of Transport has proposed the Government stop collecting a controversial road maintenance fee from motorbike owners. This move is a clear indication that the measure is flawed.

In Vietnam motorbikes are not just a major means of transport but a fortune for a lot of poor families. Under the current regulations, each motorcycle shoulders a slew of taxes and fees already, so the road maintenance fee has made the already heavy financial burden even heavier as it is collected no matter whether bikes are in circulation or not.

A Ministry of Finance rule requires all motorbike owners to pay up to VND100,000 (previously VND50,000-100,000) for motorbikes of 100cc or lower and VND150,000 (previously VND100,000-150,000) for motorbikes of more than 100cc. This means those rarely using roads suffer.

When the Transport Ministry announced its plan to collect the fee in 2012, it stoked widespread criticism with naysayers pointing out that road users in Vietnam had already been burdened by a labyrinth of taxes and fees. Facing opposition from motorbike owners, a number of provinces showed hesitance.

Debate on whether or not to do away with the road maintenance fee on motorbike users was rekindled after two of the country’s 63 cities and provinces unilaterally put the fee collection on hold last week. Danang City announced its suspension last Tuesday, followed by Khanh Hoa Province a day later. Leaders of the two localities said a huge number of staff had been mobilized to come to residential areas to collect the fee, yet the outcome was far below expectations. Also on Tuesday, at a meeting with voters in Hanoi City, Nguyen The Thao, chairman of the capital city, said the city government would consider shelving the fee imposed on motorbike owners. The actions by a couple of local governments are seen leading to a domino effect, with the fee to be lifted nationwide in near future.

Bike owners, especially those in distress, have expressed excitement over the latest developments. Earlier motorbike owners were worried about how to pay the fee. Many even said they could not pay. Unfairness is one of the key reasons on which citizens, experts and National Assembly (NA) deputies have relied to convince the Government the road maintenance fee is flawed. If one province refuses to collect the fee while another continues to do it, it would be unfair for residents who are compelled to pay.

Le Thi Thao, a resident in Hanoi’s Dong Da District, tells local media that she wanted to know where fee revenue would go and how it would be used.

The heads of certain residential quarters and chairpersons of communes have refused to collect the fee. Nguyen Van Kha, chairman of Tam Hiep Commune in Hanoi’s Phuc Tho District, says residents would not pay the fee because no one had been fined for non-compliance. Last year, the commune collected from only a small fraction of the thousands of motorbikes in use.

“The collection job is difficult and complicated. The volume of motorbikes in this area is not stable because there are so many migrants,” he explains.

Earlier, Vietnamese legislators also blasted the regulation, saying it should be reviewed or scrapped if found unreasonable. Some lawmakers proposed a review of the fee at the recent ninth session of the National Assembly (NA) while discussing the draft law on fees and charges in May.

“Many people told me that it is extremely unreasonable for them to pay the road maintenance fee when they use their motorbikes on the roads built on their land and funded with their money,” Nguyen Thi Quyet Tam, NA deputy and chairwoman of the HCMC People’s Council. In some areas, local authorities mobilize funds and other resources like land from local residents to build roads or pave sidewalks.

Local governments nationwide should be authorized to decide whether fees and charges should be collected because grassroots authorities clearly know about their situations. Truong Thi Anh, another NA deputy from the city, says local bikers are already overwhelmed with a range of fees, which has made life tough as the economy has yet to get out of the woods.