VietNamNet Bridge - The HCM City Transport Department has suggested that municipal authorities create a plan to control vehicle emissions and collect pollution fees.

Motorbikes are the major culprit that causes environment pollution?

Nguyen Van Ngai, vice rector of Hoa Sen University, has expressed his disagreement with the suggested plan.

Ngai said it is necessary to clarify transport-related reasons that cause pollution. The environment could be polluted by vehicle emissions and smoke from factories. Vehicles in circulation also kick dust, thus polluting the environment, and damage roads and bridges.

People must not be asked to pay a pollution fee for their vehicle emissions because they have to pay an environment tax imposed on petrol. They also have to pay tolls for the damages their vehicles cause to bridges and roads. 

He wonders how the revenue from the environment tax on petrol has been used.

“It is necessary to clarify how the revenue is used to ease pollution,” he said.

“I believe that even if more taxes and fees are collected, the problems will not be settled. HCM City has been facing traffic jams and floods, and the problems are getting more and more serious,” Ngai said.

Citing a report as saying that there are 8.3 million vehicles in circulation in HCM City, including 7.6 million motorbikes, an analyst predicted that the fee would be collected mostly from motorbike owners.

Citing a report as saying that there are 8.3 million vehicles in circulation in HCM City, including 7.6 million motorbikes, an analyst predicted that the fee would be collected mostly from motorbike owners.

However, the analyst pointed out that motorbikes must not be the major culprit that causes pollution.

“A bus would produce a volume of smoke higher than many motorbikes. And big vehicles, not motorbikes, cause traffic jams,” he said, adding that the city residents’ living standards have improved. 

The analyst disagreed with the opinion that Vietnam needs to prohibit motorbikes and develop public means of transport, including bus.

In Vietnam, where streets and roads are small, buses would cause congestion when they stop on streets to receive passengers. 

The analyst went on to warn that the unreasonable pollution fee, if implemented, would put an additional burden on people, especially the poor.

“The rich will drive cars. They produce smoke the most, but don’t have to breathe the smoke. It is unfair,” he commented.

In related news, the National Assembly’s Standing Committee has approved the plan on raising the environment tax on petrol to the ceiling level of VND4,000 per liter from the current level of VND3,000. The move is expected to trigger a new price increase wave.