Vietnam - Out of touch

Noble reasons are cited, and flowery terms are given when Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang unveils a plan to collect fees on private vehicles – automobiles and motorcycles alike – to build a fund for upgrading traffic infrastructure.

In encounters with the media these days, the minister reiterates his determination to impose the fee. The ministry’s move, however, is set on the course of direct collision with people from all walks of life, as covered by local media.

Under the ministry’s proposal sent to the Government, the so-called vehicular circulation fee will be imposed, at VND20-VND50 million a year on automobiles of under nine seats, and VND500,000 to VND1 million on motorcycles.

In touting his tentative scheme, the minister says colleting the vehicular circulation fee will help build up the fund for infrastructure projects, upgrade facilities for better transportation, and ease traffic congestion for the sake of a better livelihood for the people. The minister calls for responsibility from all the people to share the burden with the State, and furthers that the scheme also ensures social equitability.

The plan, however, draws immediate public reaction, with all-out objections from experts as well as general readers on local media.

“Collecting the vehicular circulation fee is to place burdens on the people,” says Vnexpress. Nguyen Bach Phuc, chair of the HCMC Science-Technology Consultancy and Management Association, questions the purpose of the proposed fee collection on this online paper.

“First, what is the purpose of the proposed vehicular circulation fee?” says Phuc, asserting that the scheme will not help restrict the number of private vehicles, especially motorcycles. Traffic congestion, according to Phuc, is due to many reasons, and the scheme if implemented will only help generate more revenue for State coffers.

In the same camp, Le Hieu Dang, former vice chair of the HCMC Fatherland Front Committee, vehemently rejects the scheme, saying congestion cannot be solved with the scheme as it is also due to limited traffic space.

The people have been suffering from too many types of fees, so they should not be forced to shoulder a new burden from the new fee. Public transport means have failed to meet the people’s demand, so it is incorrect to prevent private transport means. “Collecting the fee is similar to the transfer of the burden from the transport sector to the people,” he comments.

Bui Danh Lien, chairman of the Hanoi Automobile Transport Association, criticizes the proposed fee as an excessive collection, saying vehicle owners have been subject to too many types of fees, from higher registration and number plate fees to the fee collected via petrol prices. “That is not to mention the owners will be subject to the environment protection fee via petrol and another fee for road maintenance being weighed by the Government,” Liem says on Nguoi Lao Dong.

“Frustration is the common feeling among millions of people,” says the paper.

Tuoi Tre calculates that with some 650,000 automobiles registered in Vietnam, the circulation fee alone will amount to at least VND15 trillion a year. The huge question that remains to be answered is how the ministry will use the huge fund, says Le Hieu Dang on Lao Dong.  This newspaper together with Sai Gon Tiep Thi demand transparency on the part of the ministry over the use of different funds as well as the effectiveness of such spending.

Sai Gon Tiep Thi even slashes at the ministry over its lack of research and vision when proposing this scheme as well as its recent plans regarding transport management.

“The core (in any scheme) is the way of thinking, but regrettably, this is the weakest point, as research and surveys have been skipped. This negligence leads to the shortage of data to build up correct solutions,” says the paper.

Recalling the transport minister’s recent proposal to apply the staggering working hours in Hanoi, the paper quotes a Council member from the capital city as complaining that “a scheme that affects millions of people is presented within just a few pages like the essay of an elementary school pupil.”

Mocking the transport minister’s saying that collecting the circulation fee “is a solution to ensure social equitability,” Tuoi Tre asserts that hardy any country in the world ensures social equitability by collecting this fee.

Rarely have the public reacted so strongly to a scheme by a ministry like this case, as thousands of feedbacks on the media have been published, terming the initiative as lunatic, nonsensical, illogical, unfeasible, and weird, and considering the scheme as out of tough of the real life. Readers have a very good reason behind their reactions: the burden is already too heavy for them, especially at a time when the majority of the population have to tighten their purse string to survive economic difficulties.

In calling for the ministry to shelve the scheme, a reader insists on Tuoi Tre, “Please do not lead us to the thinking that losses and wastes in constructing and managing roads and bridges are being offset by the collection of fees like this one.”

Son Nguyen

The Saigon Times Daily

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