VietNamNet Bridge – Despite strong opposition of vehicle owners and potential bottlenecks in fee collection, the Ministry of Transport is still going ahead with its road use fee collection scheme, saying that these problems will fixed later.

llustrative image. (Photo: VNN)

Speaking at a conference on expanding this scheme in HCMC on Wednesday, Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Hong Truong said the collection scheme has been calculated carefully so that the scheme can begin early next year. Shortcomings arising during implementation will be fixed later.

Both transport enterprises and register agencies at the meeting decried severe difficulties caused by the fee.

Le Tuan Anh, deputy general director of Saigon New Port Corporation, said it is unfair to pay fees for vehicles that do not run on roads. The enterprise has a number of cars for use within the port only.

Dinh Nam Dinh, vice chairman of HCMC Goods Transport Association, suggested an exemption for trailers and semi-trailers pulled by cars or tractors while proposing that this kind of fee should be a levy on fuel consumption.

Meanwhile, a representative of Phu Yen Province’s Register Center said tractors are subject to this fee but the circular on fee collection does not mention fee rate for tractors.

Road use fees will decline every year with fee rates in the second year 92% of the first year and those in the third year 85% of the second. The representative was concerned that the circular did not mention fee rates for the fourth year.

Answering these questions, Truong said all petitions of citizens and associations have been considered. However, as it is hard to verify unused individual vehicles, so owners will still have to pay fees.

Besides, the ministry has reduced fees on trailers or semi-trailers to help support transport enterprises.

Concerning problems in fee collection at register centers, Trinh Ngoc Giao, head of the Vietnam Register, said this agency will organize training days for register centers nationwide.

According to the road use fee collection scheme, motorbike owners will have to pay VND50,000-100,000 for bikes with cylinders of 100 cubic centimeters and VND100,000-150,000 a year for those with cylinders of 100 cubic centimeters and above.

Meanwhile, there will be 11 rates for cars. Private vehicles with less than 10 seats will be charged about VND1.5 million a year, while lorries and commercial vehicles over 27 tons will bear the highest fee of nearly VND12.5 million.

Fee rates will decrease in following years.

Source: SGT