Ministry of Transport requests to collect fees on 9 expressways invested with budget

The Ministry of Transport has just sent an official dispatch to relevant ministries asking for opinions on the pilot plan to collect fees for using state-invested expressways before submitting it to the Government.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Transport proposed allowing 9 expressways invested by the State to be completed and put into operation before 2025 to pilot the fee mechanism.

Bộ GTVT xin thu phí 9 tuyến cao tốc đầu tư ngân sách - Ảnh 1. — Mai Son - National Highway 45 opened to traffic at the end of April

In addition to the previously invested Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong expressway, 8 sections of the North - South expressway in the east in the 2017 - 2020 period are proposed to apply the pilot mechanism, including: Cao Bo - Mai Son, Mai Son - National Highway 45, National Highway 45 - Nghi Son, Nghi Son - Dien Chau, Cam Lo - La Son, Vinh Hao - Phan Thiet, Phan Thiet - Dau Giay and My Thuan 2 bridge.

The proposed pilot implementation period is applied until the legal regulations on highway toll collection are passed by the National Assembly .

The pilot period for collecting fees under the maximum fee mechanism is 5 years from the time the road section or route is implemented to collect fees.

The toll collection levels for these 9 expressways will be determined based on 3 principles, including: the collection level is appropriate to the interests and payment capacity of expressway users; the collection level is built on the basis of the total collected fees after compensating for collection costs, ensuring a surplus to balance the state budget.

The collection level is calculated for each specific section and expressway route to ensure suitability with the exploitation and socio -economic conditions of each region.

Regarding the method of organizing toll collection, the Ministry of Transport proposed to comprehensively apply non-stop toll collection, multi-lane connection between sections, expressways, between projects invested by the State and public-private partnership (PPP) projects. The amount collected after deducting the collection organization costs will be paid directly to the state budget.

According to the Ministry of Transport, because the collection of tolls on state-invested highways is unprecedented, the pilot project must be carried out sequentially in accordance with regulations.

In which, the Government submitted to the National Assembly a resolution approving the pilot mechanism for collecting highway usage fees through toll stations on highway sections and routes.

After the National Assembly's resolution on the pilot mechanism is passed, the Government will issue a decree guiding the collection, payment, management and use of the collected amount. On that basis, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Finance will issue relevant legal documents.

When the legal basis for collecting tolls for using expressways through toll stations is completed, the Ministry of Transport will direct the agency assigned to manage expressways to develop exploitation projects, including organizing toll collection for expressways that have been approved for pilot implementation. Exploitation is carried out in accordance with the provisions of Article 80 of the Law on Management and Use of Public Assets.

The current Road Traffic Law stipulates that there will be no toll collection on roads invested with the state budget, but instead a maintenance fee will be collected on each vehicle during vehicle inspection.

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