Ministry of Transport announces intend to scrap motorbike street fees

HA NOI (VNS) - After several fits and begins, the Ministry of Transportation has veered around to the view that an annual road maintenance fee on motorbikes should be annulled.

Transportation Minister Dinh La Thang said at a gathering on Tuesday that his ministry will work with the Ministry of Financing on the proposal to the federal government, recommending that the annual charge on motorbikes should be cancelled.

At the interacting with organised by the transport ministry and attended by officials of the finance and planning and investment ministries, Thang said the two ministries shall propose amendments to Decree 18, that was issued in 2012 to collect fees on automobiles.

But the road-maintenance charge on cars and trucks will remain, Thang said.

Under Decree 18, the road maintenance fee on vehicles will be collected when the vehicles are registered and remitted right to the National Finance for Road Maintenance.

The collection was left by it of motorbike fees to the discretion of local authorities, who would then use a portion of it for maintaining local roads.

However, since the decree arrived to effect in 2013, just a few provinces have began to collect this fee, and many more have been hesitant to take action because of level of resistance from motorbike owners.

At Tuesday's conference, several participants expressed concerns over many areas of collecting the charge on motorbikes, arguing that it should not collected without public consensus.

While acknowledging that not collecting the charge would mean that the continuing state Budget would lose a source of revenue, they said it might be problematic for local government bodies to impose penalties strong enough to enforce compliance.

Insufficient uniformity

Tuesday's meeting of the ministries occurred after two central provinces waived the charge last week.

Da Nang City decided to temporarily stop fee collection last Tuesday and was followed by Khanh Hoa Province the next day.

These techniques were interpreted by many as a sign for removal of the fee on a nationwide scale.

Also on Tuesday, in a meeting with voters in Ha Noi, Mayor Nguyen The Thao pledged to consider waiving the charge for motorbike owners.

When some of the voters cited Da Nang and Khanh Hoa and asked him why Ha Noi should not follow suit, Thao said the waiver proposal was a "good notion worth consideration."

Ha Noi started to gather the fee in July 2013, charging VND50,000 (US$2.5) on motorbikes up to 100cc capacity, and VND100,000 ($5) for people that have higher engine capacities.

The dissatisfied voters have been backed by experts as well as Country wide Assembly deputies who have told the federal government that the existing situation is unfair.

Tran Ngoc Vinh of the National Assembly's Legal Committee said: "If a locality refuses to gather the charge while another continues to do it, it might be unfair for residents who've to pay". - VNS