VietNamNet Bridge - 2012 is considered a very "hot" year for the transport sector. Many policies grasped special public interest when they were proposed or implemented.

Charges and restrictions



Pursuant to the Resolution, the Decree of the National Assembly, the Government on measures to reduce traffic accidents, congestion and to restrict personal vehicles by economic solution--in late 2011 and early 2012, the Ministry of Transport sent a report to the Prime Minister suggesting that the National Assembly Standing Committee would issue resolutions on applying additional charges on personal vehicles and cars entering the center area during the rush hour in the five major cities of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hai Phong and Can Tho.

The proposal immediately caught public attention. Many people said that this policy would make great impacts on the people with low and average income, who still use motorcycles.

Recently, the Department of Transportation of HCM City asked the local authorities’ permission to collect charges from the cars that enter the city center (District 1 and 3) to reduce traffic congestion, on a trial basis. However, many people wondered about the feasibility of this project and raised concerns about the rise of prices.

In the latest news, the Government just announced to not collect the charges on personal vehicles.

In April 2012, the controversy over the 5x5 formula (banning cars from circulation for 5 hours a day, five days a week) proposed by former pilot Mai Trong Tuan broke out. The Vice President of Hanoi asked the relevant agencies to consider the proposal.

However, experts said that this formula cannot completely handle traffic congestion in big cities like Hanoi and HCM City.

Revealing the “culprit” causing vehicle fires




In late 2011 and early 2012, a lot of vehicle fires were reported. In early January 2012, the Government directed relevant ministries to quickly find out the cause of vehicle fires.

On April 26, the four ministries of Public Security, Transport, Science and Technology, Industry and Trade announced that the main reason leading to the fires was short circuits.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, short circuits were mainly caused by the failure of insulation of conductor wires by various reasons.

However, many scientists and experts showed scientific evidence to prove that the quality of petrol in the market was the greatest deliberation that should be investigated further.

In fact, a series of filling stations were detected of selling poor-quality gasoline.

Separating roads in Hanoi

In September 2011, Hanoi began separating five roads (Ba Trieu, Hue, Hang Bai, Xa Dan, Dai Co Viet, Tran Khat Chan, Giai Phong) into lanes for cars and other vehicles by using concrete lines, with a budget of VND7.14 billion ($350,000).

However, this measure did not work well as expected because the concrete line and signal columns caused many traffic accidents. The authorities also admitted that the measure only worked with the presence of traffic policemen. While the effect of this measure is not proven, Hanoi planned to apply it for other roads.

Experts suggested that Hanoi should stop using concrete lines to separate roads because in addition to the poor consciousness of drivers, roads in Hanoi usually have many crossroads, making the separation ineffective.

Motorbike registration fines stir opposition

Decree71/CP sets out fines of VND800,000-VND1.2 million (US$38-57) for those who possess motorbikes for which they failed to complete change of ownership procedures. These are eight times higher than the previous fines of VND100,000-VND200,000 ($4.7-9.2).

Automobile owners who make the same mistake will be fined between VND6-10 million ($285-476). Formerly they only had to pay between VND1-2 million ($47-95).

This provision made hundreds of thousands of people anxious because they were using vehicles in the names of others and in many cases, they could not find the owner because some vehicles are passed around to so many people. Many expressed concern that the new regulations are irrational.

Ms. Le Thi Nga, Deputy Director of the Justice Committee of the National Assembly, affirmed that the Decree is "wrong and unfeasible," adding that the too high fines make people have extreme reactions against the state policy.

Director of the Legislative Studies Institute, Mr. Dinh Xuan Thao, said the decree should be suspended for 6 months or 1 year and the fees for changing the ownership should be slashed.

Before the reaction of the public opinion, the government asked the Ministry of Public Security to soon prepare a guiding circular and while waiting for the circular, the police are not allow to fine vehicles of this type. The relevant agencies are also working to reduce the fees for ownership change to 1 percent.

Collecting road charges from 01/01/2013

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 be fixed later.

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.

The scheme took effect on January 1, 2013.

Gia Van