Vietnam - Transport Minister proposes higher fees on personal vehicles

VietNamNet Bridge – While the “personal vehicle circulation fee” is still a controversy, Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang has suggested calling it as “personal vehicle restriction fee” and to raise the fee by five percent per annum.

Huge cost for owning a car in Vietnam 


The suggestion is mentioned in a Ministry of Transport’s report on traffic fees, recently sent to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

The Ministry also proposes to not impose this fee on public, army and diplomatic cars.

The fee on cars will be collected by vehicle inspection centers. The fee on motorbikes will be collected six months later than cars and this task will be assigned to local governments.

In its report to the government last November, the Ministry of Transport proposed the government to impose personal vehicle circulation fee on cars and motorbikes in the five biggest cities in Vietnam, including Hanoi, HCM City, Da Nang, Can Tho and Hai Phong.

Cars with less than 9 seats will pay a traffic fee of VND20 million – 50 million ($1,000-2,500) per year, depending on their cylinder capacities. Meanwhile, motorbike users will pay a fee of VND500,000-1 million ($25-50).

In addition to these annual fees, drivers of cars with up to seven seats entering the central areas of cities during rush hours (6-8.30am and 4-7pm every day, except Saturdays and Sundays) will pay a charge of VND30,000 ($1.5) per entry, and for cars of other kinds, the charge will be VND50,000 ($2.5). Government cars and buses will be exempted from the fee. Municipal authorities will define the areas and the fees.

However, many experts said such a fee would only help increase the State budget’s revenue while failing to reduce the use of personal vehicles.

Meanwhile, as of June 1, 2012, vehicle owners will have to pay a new kind of fee, called road maintenance fee. Under the Ministry of Transport’s suggestion, it will be VND180,000-VND1.44 million/car/month and VND80,000-150,000/motorbike/year.

Nam Nguyen


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