Lower fees proposed for transport firms

Lower fees proposed for transport firms

A proposed Ministry of Finance draft circular would give transport businesses a number of new benefits if passed.

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The Ministry of Finance (MoF) just turned to the Ministry of Transport (MoT) for comments on a draft to the MoF’s Circular 197/2012/TT-BTC, dated November 2012, guiding collection, payment, management and use of roads by units of vehicles. This is aimed at helping reduce the financial burdens now on transport companies.

Accordingly, the first benefit transport firms would see is a new regulation covering truck drivers.

The existing circular regulates the collection of road tolls from tractor trailers and/or semi-trailers, whereas the draft version combines the weight of both vehicles to calculate charges.

This means firms using trailer trucks will pay fees on trailers correlative to their tractor number.

According to Le Van Tien, owner of a big tractor business and chairman of Haiphong Freight Transport Association, if the draft is passed into law, transport firms could save up to VND10 million ($500) in road use charges each month.

“In fact, some firms have 50 tractors carrying 70 trailers. Under the draft they would pay fees on the 50 tractors with relevant trailers but not the total 70 trailers,” said Tien.

The second new point in the draft is that transport firms with accrued road use charges of VND50 million ($2,380) per month can pay on a monthly basis, but not every six months as at present.

Chairman of the Vietnam Auto Transport Association Nguyen Van Thanh said the new regulation would help alleviate businesses’ burdens as they pay big amounts every 6, 12, 18 or 24 months now and could instead pay smaller amounts each time.

My A Forwarding Joint Stock Company general director Vo Thi Phuong Lan seconded this, saying existing regulations require firms to pay road use charges on units of vehicles following a longer-term registry period, depending on the type of vehicle (second-hand or brand new.

Under this regulation, firms with large numbers of vehicles often have to borrow money to ensure they meet their payment obligations.

Another new point in the draft that is being welcomed by transport firms is that vehicles would not have to pay charges if their use has been suspended for 30 or more consecutive days.

If firms already paid these fees, they would be refunded or deducted from a later payment.

In fact, for a number of reasons, many vehicles are left unused for a month or more while firms still pay road use charges on them. The new regulation helps avoid this and reduce the financial burden on businesses.

According to Deputy Minister of Finance Vu Thi Mai, the MoF will start sourcing comments from other government agencies and localities on the draft circular once it gets input from the MoT.

By Anh Minh

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