Many
people are voicing their objections against the Ministry of Transport’s latest
plan to collect fees on private vehicles, including automobiles and
motorcycles.
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.
Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang said
colleting the fee would help build up the fund for infrastructure projects,
upgrade facilities for better transportation, and ease traffic congestion.
The plan, however, is being criticized by many
citizens as well as local media.
“Collecting the vehicular circulation fee is
to place burdens on the people,” Vnexpress said.
Nguyen Bach Phuc, chair of the Ho Chi Minh
City Science-Technology Consultancy and Management Association, questioned the
purpose of the proposed fee collection on this online paper.
“First, what is the purpose of the proposed vehicular
circulation fee?” said Phuc, who asserted the scheme would not help restrict
the number of private vehicles, especially motorcycles.
Traffic congestion, Phuc said, is caused by
many reasons, and the scheme will only help generate more revenues for State
coffers.
Le Hieu Dang, former vice chair of the Ho Chi
Minh City Fatherland Front Committee, vehemently rejected the scheme, saying it
couldn’t solve congestion because congestion was caused by limited traffic
space.
According to Dang, the people have been
suffering from too many types of fees, so they should not be forced to shoulder
a new burden.
Public transport means have failed to meet the
people’s demand, so it’s incorrect to discourage private transportation.
“Collecting the fee is similar to transferring the burden from the transport
sector to the people,” Dang said.
Bui Danh Lien, chairman of the Hanoi
Automobile Transport Association, criticized the proposed fee as an excessive
collection, saying vehicle owners had 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 that is being decided by the Government,” Liem told Nguoi Lao Dong
Newspaper.
“Frustration is the common feeling among millions
of people,” Nguoi Lao Dong said.
For its part, Tuoi Tre calculated that with
650,000 automobiles registered in Vietnam, the circulation fee alone would
amount to at least VND15 trillion a year.
The question is how the ministry will use this
huge fund, Le Hieu Dang told Lao Dong Newspaper.
This newspaper together with Sai Gon Tiep Thi
demanded transparency from the ministry about the use of different funds as
well as the effectiveness of such spending.
Sai Gon Tiep Thi even slashed 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 develop
correct solutions,” said the paper.
Recalling the transport minister’s recent
proposal to apply the staggering working hours in Hanoi, the paper quoted 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 student.”
Mocking the transport minister’s saying that
collecting the circulation fee “is a solution to ensure social equitability,”
Tuoi Tre said hardly any country in the world had ensured social equitability
by collecting such a fee.
Rarely have the public reacted so strongly to
a scheme by a ministry, as thousands of feedbacks on local media have been
published, calling the initiative as lunatic, nonsensical, illogical,
unfeasible, and weird, ands out of touch.
Readers say the burden is already too heavy
for them, especially at a time when the majority of the population has to
tighten their purse string to survive economic difficulties.
A reader told Tuoi Tre, “Please don’t tell us
that losses and wastes in constructing and managing roads and bridges are being
offset by the collection of fees like this one.”
Tuoitrenews
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