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Collecting tolls on state-invested highways - don't let "a hundred mulberry leaves fall on the silkworm's head"

Báo Kinh tế và Đô thịBáo Kinh tế và Đô thị02/08/2024


The 2024 Road Law stipulates that fees will be collected for using highways invested in by the State and transferred for management.
The 2024 Road Law stipulates that fees will be collected for using highways invested in by the State and transferred for management.

Still wondering

According to the Vietnam Road Administration, in the next 10 years, the demand for new investment capital for expressways will reach nearly VND240,000 billion, while maintenance capital will only meet about 40%. Human resources for managing and operating expressways is also a difficult problem as by 2030, 10,000 workers will be needed. Many project owners have not promptly and adequately allocated capital to manage and maintain expressways.

To address this issue, Article 50 of the 2024 Road Law stipulates that the State will collect fees for using expressways invested by the State and transferred to the State for management. The collected fees will be paid into the State budget and invested in the maintenance, repair, and upgrading of expressways in the future.

According to the Ministry of Transport , there are currently 10 projects and expressway sections invested by the State that have been completed and put into operation and are eligible for toll collection, including: Hanoi - Thai Nguyen, Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong, Mai Son - National Highway 45, National Highway 45 - Nghi Son, Nghi Son - Dien Chau, Cam Lo - La Son, La Son - Hoa Lien, Vinh Hao - Phan Thiet, Phan Thiet - Dau Giay, My Thuan - Can Tho.

The draft Decree on highway toll collection is based on the provisions of the Road Law. The Ministry of Transport proposes that the lowest toll rate for state-invested highways is VND900/km and the highest is VND5,200/km. This information has raised concerns among many vehicle owners, especially transport companies, about whether they will be charged double fees when vehicles have to pay road maintenance fees, fees for BOT routes and highway fees invested by the State?

An anonymous vehicle owner said that every year, car owners pay a lot of fees such as insurance fees, road maintenance fees, highway fees, etc. Paying many types of fees will affect people's travel, trade and goods prices. Another opinion said that the cost of investing in highways is also from the people's tax contributions to the budget. If vehicle users have to pay taxes and many types of fees at the same time, it will become a burden for people, especially transportation businesses.

However, according to traffic experts, to complete the highway network requires a huge amount of resources, and toll collection is essential to reduce pressure on the budget. International practice and investment activities in highways in many countries around the world also have similar regulations. Traffic participants have the right to choose to travel on national highways (without having to pay extra for highway use) or pay for highway use to enjoy higher quality of service and benefits.

According to Chairman of the Vietnam Automobile Transport Association Nguyen Van Quyen, our country is currently building expressways in many forms: State budget, BOT, BT... Organizing toll collection to ensure the infrastructure system distributes vehicles harmoniously between routes and increases the feasibility in capital recovery for routes invested in the form of PPP.

The Ministry of Transport said that the collection of tolls on highways invested by the State has been applied by many countries because the budget of each country is limited. Currently, the maintenance and upkeep of the routes currently in operation is facing many difficulties due to insufficient revenue from road tolls and limited budget.

Furthermore, with a series of expressways about to be put into use in the near future, if toll collection is not organized, it will pose a huge burden on exploitation, maintenance and upkeep, and no public resources are abundant enough to meet the demand. The proposal to collect tolls on expressways managed and invested by the State is also a breakthrough in the context that localities across the country want to have roads, bridges and expressways to promote socio -economic development.

Harmony of interests

Regarding concerns about “overlapping fees” for vehicle owners, Director of the Vietnam Road Administration Bui Quang Thai said that the consistent view of the Ministry of Transport is that only expressways with service quality corresponding to the collection level will collect fees. The collection level must meet three principles: be consistent with the interests and payment ability of users; after compensating for costs, the organization must ensure a surplus to balance the State budget; and be calculated for each specific section and route to suit the operating conditions and socio-economic conditions of each region.

Currently, there are two proposed forms of management, exploitation and toll collection for expressways. The first is that the State itself organizes toll collection. The second is to grant the right to manage and exploit to the private sector.

In the first form, through bidding, the Department of Roads will select a contractor to provide toll collection services on the basis of a non-stop automatic toll collection system, after deducting the collection organization costs, it will be paid to the budget. The second form is bidding for highway management in the form of an operation and management (O&M) contract. The investor will collect tolls and manage and maintain the route. The State will sell the right to collect tolls on the highway for a certain period of time. However, it will be difficult to attract investors for highways with low traffic.

Regarding toll rates, the Vietnam Road Administration is currently studying scenarios and calculating to ensure a balance between the services provided to users and the collection rate. The steps will be carried out carefully to avoid too much impact on the CPI index and logistics costs.

According to the opinion of Deputy Director of the Institute for Economic and Policy Research Nguyen Quoc Viet, it is necessary to assign independent consultants to conduct research and develop plans, and the Ministry of Transport will propose criteria and make appropriate adjustments. Meanwhile, traffic expert, Master Do Cao Phan suggested that international experience should be consulted on toll collection on expressways. It is necessary to consider different toll collection levels for expressways with 2 lanes, 4 lanes, and 6 lanes.

In addition, national highways, provincial roads, and district roads must also be invested in upgrading, expanding, and renewing so that people and transport units have choices when participating in traffic. Furthermore, some experts also believe that toll collection must be digitized and modern technologies applied to avoid loss of revenue; reduce costs for the management apparatus, revenue and expenditure on expressways.

The collection of tolls for using expressways managed and invested by the State is a new policy. To make the toll collection effective, it is necessary to carefully study and evaluate to have reasonable toll rates for each area, and at the same time, make the revenue sources transparent to create consensus among the people.

 

The model of the State building roads and then selling the right to collect tolls, and bidding for management in the form of O&M has been applied effectively for a long time in many countries. The problem is how to choose a professional contractor with capacity in technology and equipment. For expressways with low traffic volume, it is necessary to establish appropriate prices, the toll collection period can be longer, ensuring the feasibility of financial solutions for investors.

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Tran Chung - Chairman of the Association of Construction Investors
Vietnam road traffic



Source: https://kinhtedothi.vn/thu-phi-cao-toc-do-nha-nuoc-dau-tu-khong-de-tram-dau-do-dau-tam.html

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