Transparency in collecting the road maintenance fee must be ensured before authorities start the collection scheduled for January 1 next year, National Assembly deputies and transporters said at a seminar in HCMC on Wednesday.



Public consensus can only be achieved if collection of the fee on automobiles and motorcycles for the road maintenance fee and its utilization are made transparent, they said at the seminar hosted by the HCMC Goods Transport Association and the Vietnam Freight Forwarders Association (VIFFAS).

Even though the Government has agreed to postpone the deployment schedule of the fund to January 1, 2013 instead of June 1 this year, the city’s NA deputies still urged related agencies to answer questions posed by transport firms.

Deputy Duong Trong Nghia pointed out the current road maintenance fund has yet to satisfy five key elements comprising reasonability, legality, transparency, effectiveness and accountability.

Nghia suggested that the transport ministry make reports on surveyed results of those fees already imposed on private vehicles so that it could adjust the road maintenance fees in a suitable way.

Deputy Tran Du Lich, meanwhile, emphasized the importance of mobilizing all resources from the society to build traffic infrastructure but criticized the wrong way of implementation.

As construction projects under the forms of build-operate-transfer (BOT), and build-transfer (BT) are no longer attractive to investors, the ministry has shifted to collecting fees from citizens to ensure capital for infrastructure projects, Lich said.

“In principle, local people have no choice but to travel on either good or bad roads if they only pay taxes but with road maintenance fees, they have the right to ask for good roads only. Thus, the Government cannot collect people’s money in such a facile way,” Lich stressed.

Transport firms struggling

While deputies asked for the clarification of the existing improper issues of the road maintenance fee collection, most businesses in the transport industry expressed concerns over the fund collection, saying it would push them to the verge of bankruptcy.

Do Xuan Phu, director of the transport company Minh Lien, was worried about the fact that businesses in the sector would have to rely on banking loans to pay the fee. With the sky-high lending rates plus poor business performance, many transport companies will go bust as a result, Phu stated.

Besides, logistics firms were suffering meager profits due to exorbitant levels of taxes and fees, as mentioned by Nguyen Ngoc Lu, former vice chairman of the HCMC Transport Association.

“In 2005, the price of gasoline was only VND5,800 a liter but now it has marked up by four times while transport fees have only increased by 60%. In fact, transport companies are struggling to survive with a scant charge of VND80,000 for one ton of goods from Khanh Hoi Port to Bien Hoa Industrial Park in Dong Nai,” Lu added.

SGT