Many important recommendations have been made by the Interdisciplinary Appraisal Council for the Feasibility Study Report of the Tan Phu - Bao Loc Expressway Construction Project under the public-private partnership (PPP) method.
 |
Clarifying ticket prices
After more than 1 year of appraisal, the Inter-sectoral Appraisal Council has just issued Report No. 219/BC-HDTĐLN to the Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee on the appraisal results of the Feasibility Study Report of the Tan Phu - Bao Loc Expressway Construction Project (Tan Phu - Bao Loc Expressway Project). This is one of 3 projects to build the Dau Giay - Lien Khuong Expressway connecting the Southeast and the Central Highlands implemented under the PPP method.
The first recommendation made by the Inter-sectoral Appraisal Council concerns the State capital participation in the Project.
The Feasibility Study Report of the Tan Phu – Bao Loc Expressway Project mentions the study of supplementing the plan to increase state budget capital to a maximum of 50% of the total investment as prescribed in Article 69 of the Law on Investment under the public-private partnership method to reduce the payback period, increase financial feasibility, capital mobilization ability and attract investors interested in the Project.
Specifically, the state capital participating in the Project is about 8,900 billion VND, an increase of 2,400 billion VND compared to the investment policy approved by the Prime Minister. However, in the Project dossier sent to the Inter-sectoral Appraisal Council, Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee did not have any explanation, justification, or specific proposal for this plan.
During the process of explaining and completing the Project dossier, Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee has issued documents reporting to the Government leaders and sent them to the Ministry of Planning and Investment (Standing Agency of the Interdisciplinary Appraisal Council) affirming that the Project will continue to be implemented according to the approved investment policy, and will not propose to increase the State budget capital participating in the Project (which will lead to the need to adjust the Project investment policy).
“Therefore, the Interdisciplinary Appraisal Council requests the Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee to review and explain the Project Feasibility Study Report consistently,” Report No. 219 stated.
According to the Feasibility Study Report, the Project's revenue source is road service fee revenue, which is determined based on the traffic volume on the expressway and toll prices. The Project plans to apply a toll price of VND2,000/vehicle/km for Group 1 vehicles; and VND2,600/vehicle/km, VND3,400/vehicle/km, VND5,400/vehicle/km, and VND7,600/vehicle/km for Group 2, 3, 4, and 5 vehicles, respectively.
The Interdisciplinary Appraisal Council requested the People's Committee of Lam Dong province to review the proposed price and roadmap for adjusting the price of road use services of the Project to ensure the basis, principles, and methods of pricing and price adjustment in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Investment under the public-private partnership model, the Law on Prices (effective from July 1, 2024) and related laws.
Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee was also requested to supplement the legal and practical basis for proposing a starting fare of VND 2,000/standard vehicle/km; the basis for proposing a price increase roadmap; the similarity of the Project with the projects being compared to propose the price and roadmap for adjusting road service prices (including the price of highway services on the Dau Giay - Tan Phu and Bao Loc - Lien Khuong expressways on the Dau Giay - Lien Khuong expressway).
Not very attractive
Like many highway investment projects that have been and are being implemented under the PPP method, payback period and the ability to mobilize credit capital are the key points in the Feasibility Study Report of the Tan Phu - Bao Loc Expressway Project.
According to the Feasibility Study Report, the Project's payback period is 24 years and 1 month; the contract period is from the date of contract signing (including basic construction time) to the end of the Project's payback period.
The Inter-sectoral Appraisal Council assessed that the payback period of the above Project is quite long, which may lead to difficulties in mobilizing credit capital from credit institutions, because the capital sources of credit institutions are mainly short-term, making it difficult to balance capital sources for lending with too long a term (most projects are providing credit with a term of less than 20 years).
Regarding this content, the representative of the State Bank also said that the Project has a large demand for loans (about 9,706 billion VND, accounting for 85% of the capital arranged by the investor).
In addition, the project's payback period is long and increased compared to the approved investment policy (from 22 years and 6 months to 24 years and 1 month); in the first 15 years of exploitation, the project is unable to repay the debt.
“Thus, there is no basis to confirm the feasibility of mobilizing credit capital for the Project. Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee needs to study and have a plan to diversify capital sources to invest in the Project, reduce dependence on a specific capital source; avoid the situation where the Project is approved for investment, but cannot mobilize enough investment capital, leading to a prolongation of implementation time", Mr. Dao Minh Tu, Deputy Governor of the State Bank assessed.
It is known that the attractiveness of the Project is not too great, when during the survey of investors' interest conducted by Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee from July 20, 2023 to August 20, 2023, only 1 investor submitted an application of interest and met the requirements of capacity and experience.
“The Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee is requested to pay attention to and carefully review the factors in the financial plan, ensure the feasibility of mobilizing loans during the process of selecting investors, as well as specifically request the contents related to the operation, exploitation, maintenance of the project, and ensure the quality of the project when handing over to the State,” the Interdisciplinary Appraisal Council recommended.
Source: https://baodautu.vn/hieu-chinh-kich-ban-dau-tu-cao-toc-tan-phu—bao-loc-d240381.html
Comment (0)