Technical infrastructure works such as electricity, water, and telecommunications will have to pay road usage fees according to new regulations. The specific determination of the collection level is being considered and calculated by the authorities.
Determine the components of the rental price
According to the 2024 Road Law, effective from January 1, 2025, revenue from the exploitation and use of technical infrastructure works used in conjunction with roads is one of the revenue sources for investment, construction, management, operation, exploitation, and maintenance of road infrastructure.
Road infrastructure fees will be calculated in accordance with the scale of each technical project (illustrative photo).
A representative of a clean water company said that they are willing to pay fees for using road infrastructure. However, this unit believes that it is necessary to clearly define the fee according to the level of use; businesses that use a lot will have to pay a lot.
According to Dr. Truong Thi My Thanh, University of Transport Technology, first of all, it is necessary to determine the rental price based on costs. That is, the cost components for investing in technical infrastructure works, then how much money it costs to exploit and operate.
The second is a comparison mechanism approach with commercially equivalent products and services to determine rental rates in accordance with general principles.
Sharing the same view, Mr. Nguyen Van Quyen, Chairman of the Vietnam Automobile Transport Association, said that the number of units using road infrastructure is increasing, so it is appropriate to spend a portion of profits to pay for usage.
"That's the regulation, but we have to differentiate between types of investment projects. For example, state-invested road projects have different fees compared to road projects invested by private investors," said Mr. Quyen.
Prepare project and submit to competent authority for approval
A representative of the Finance Department of the Vietnam Road Administration said that collecting technical infrastructure fees is a new field. Input costs such as the investment rate of a route, the cost of building shared technical infrastructure, road depreciation, etc. will be aggregated and then divided into rental fees. "However, this is only relative," he said.
Mr. Le Hong Diep, Head of Traffic Organization Management Department, Vietnam Road Administration said that the most difficult thing is calculating the fee, because the fee must be appropriate to the scale of each technical project.
According to Mr. Diep, determining the original price factor to calculate input costs, from which to determine the rental price, also has many levels. For example: The cost of installing water pipes depends on the terrain and location, the cost of installing water pipes in advance along with renovating and upgrading the road is different from the cost after the road has been put into operation.
"The input costs for producing thousands of cars are the same, but for technical infrastructure, each route has a different way of calculating input costs," Mr. Diep explained.
At the same time, whether the land cost is included in the rental price or not is also something that needs to be calculated. For example, the cost of land clearance for 1km of national highway is about 20 billion, is this amount included in the shared technical infrastructure cost or not? Small-scale projects can be ignored, but large-scale electrical and telecommunications infrastructure projects without land clearance costs included in the rental price is unreasonable.
According to the provisions of Decree 44/2024 on management, use and exploitation of road infrastructure assets, to collect fees for shared use of road infrastructure for electricity, telecommunications, domestic water, etc., it is necessary to prepare a project and submit it to the competent authority for approval.
All factors such as determining the collection level, collection unit, and revenue source will be specifically calculated in the upcoming project, ensuring that the collection is truly effective and does not cause negative impacts, with careful consideration of the fee level and management mechanism.
Use more pay more
Many people are concerned that the application of road infrastructure fees could increase costs for electricity, water and telecommunications businesses. These costs could be passed on to consumers by businesses through increased service prices.
However, according to Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Hong Thai, Faculty of Transport - Economics, University of Transport, collecting fees for using road infrastructure will be fair to businesses. When fees are collected, of course, accounting must be done and thus will affect general costs and consumption costs of the people.
"Like gasoline, electricity and water, all will be input factors, added to the cost. We have to explain so that people can accompany and share," Mr. Thai commented.
Regarding this issue, a representative of the Vietnam Road Administration said that in the future, when developing the project, the principle of classifying and adjusting road infrastructure usage fees will be based on the level of use and impact on the infrastructure of each enterprise. That will help ensure fairness and reasonableness.
"Businesses that use a lot and have a big impact will pay higher fees than businesses that use less. This will not affect the business's service price much," he affirmed.
According to the Road Law, financial sources for investment, construction, management, operation, exploitation and maintenance of road infrastructure paid to the State budget include: Road usage fees collected through vehicle heads for automobiles; highway usage fees collected from vehicles traveling on highways invested, owned, managed and exploited by the State; State revenue related to the exploitation and use of road infrastructure, revenue from the exploitation and use of technical infrastructure works used in common with roads and other legal revenue sources according to the provisions of law.
Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/dien-luc-vien-thong-se-tra-phi-ha-tang-duong-bo-192250310210136539.htm
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