Government Inspector proposes to eliminate alcohol concentration testing for drivers

Traffic police check and handle alcohol concentration violations

The Government Inspectorate has just announced the conclusion of the inspection on the responsibility of performing public duties of cadres, civil servants and public employees in handling administrative procedures and providing public services to people and businesses at the Ministry of Transport .

In the conclusion, the inspection agency stated that according to the regulations in the process of issuing new and exchanging driving licenses, the dossier requires a health certificate for the driver, including the indication of "blood or breath alcohol concentration test".

The Government Inspectorate emphasized that the alcohol test results only reflect the time of the health examination, not the time the driver drives. Therefore, the regulation of alcohol testing at the time of health examination of the person applying for a driving license is unnecessary, increasing the cost for people when doing procedures to issue or exchange driving licenses.

According to the Government Inspectorate, a report by the Vietnam Road Administration shows that from January 2021 to January 2023, the entire transport sector issued more than 9.9 million driving licenses of all kinds. Calculating the unit price of more than 35,000 VND/test, the cost for people to test for alcohol concentration during health check-ups to issue driving licenses is about 350 billion VND.

Based on this reality, the inspection agency proposed that the Ministry of Transport coordinate with the Ministry of Health to study and amend the driver's health examination form in Circular 24 (2015). In which, the requirement to test for alcohol concentration in blood or breath should be removed to simplify, facilitate and reduce costs for people when issuing and renewing driver's licenses.

VN (synthesis)

Source: https://baohaiduong.vn/thanh-tra-chinh-phu-de-nghi-bo-xet-nghiem-nong-do-con-voi-nguoi-kham-suc-khoe-lai-xe-395997.html