Fees that guarantee benefits for users
The Ministry of Transport officially asked for comments on the draft Government Decree regulating the collection of highway usage fees.
The Decree guiding the 2024 Road Law has just been issued by the National Assembly with the aim of perfecting the legal basis, clearly regulating the types and subjects of toll collection, and implementation plans, ensuring feasibility, publicity and transparency.
Regarding the fee, the Ministry of Transport said that the fee is determined to basically cover the costs of management, toll collection operations, and highway maintenance. In addition, it takes into account the State's socio-economic development policy. At the same time, it is built on the basis of calculating the benefits of highway users.
The collection level is built on the basis of the law on fees and charges, deducting related taxes and fees, avoiding duplicate collection of fees, ensuring harmony with the collection level for services using roads and highways invested in the form of PPP.
The Ministry of Transport also said that there are currently 12 projects and expressway sections invested by the State and put into operation by representatives of the owners. Therefore, the fee is built on the basis of the interests of vehicle owners. At the same time, international practice is consulted, according to which expressway users are often willing to pay a cost equivalent to 50-70% of the benefits obtained when using the expressway.
10 expressways expected to collect tolls: 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.
From the above analysis, in the draft decree, the Ministry of Transport proposes the following fees for using state-invested highways: The highway usage fee applies to highways that fully meet the regulations on conditions for implementing toll collection (Level 1): equivalent to 70% of the benefits obtained when using the highway (about 1,300 VND/vehicle.km).
The highway usage fee applies to highway projects that have been decided on investment policies before the effective date of the Road Law, when put into operation but do not fully meet the requirements specified in the Road Law (Level 2): equivalent to 50% of the benefits obtained when using the highway (about 900 VND/vehicle.km).
Regarding the benefits of the policy, the Ministry of Transport said that the collection of tolls on state-invested highways will generate state budget revenue by mobilizing resources from highway users in a timely and reasonable manner, contributing to creating funding sources for investment in the development of the highway system and for management and maintenance. The amount collected, after deducting the costs of organizing toll collection, will be paid to the state budget and used in accordance with the provisions of the Budget Law.
"With the proposed fee level as mentioned above, it is expected that after implementing toll collection on 10 expressways in operation, the estimated toll revenue will be 3,210 billion VND/year; the amount paid to the state budget will be 2,850 billion VND/year," said the Ministry of Transport.
The Draft Decree consists of 4 chapters and 12 articles. Chapter 3 stipulates the collection rates, collection, payment, management and use of highway usage fees; at the same time, regulates the management and use of highway usage fees in 2 cases: The collection management unit is the road management agency directly organizing the exploitation of highway traffic infrastructure assets and the case of transferring the right to collect fees, transferring the right to do business - manage highway traffic infrastructure assets.
To be able to organize toll collection, the agency assigned to manage highway infrastructure assets must prepare an asset exploitation project and submit it to the competent authority or person for approval according to regulations.
To ensure appropriate and feasible regulations in implementing highway toll collection, the draft decree stipulates: "Based on socio-economic conditions and management needs, the agency assigned to manage assets shall prepare a project for exploiting assets for highways in case of toll collection to submit to competent authorities for approval in accordance with the law on public assets and specialized laws. The time of toll collection and toll collection routes are specifically determined in the project for exploiting assets approved by competent authorities."
No double-take
Regarding benefits for people and businesses, calculations by the Ministry of Transport show that highways with good quality and high traffic speed will save users time and vehicle operating costs.
The results of quantifying operating costs and time costs show that, compared to traveling on parallel national highways, vehicles traveling on the expressway will benefit an average of VND 4,824/vehicle/km, of which 25% comes from saving on vehicle operating costs and 75% comes from saving on time for goods and passengers on the road.
The vehicle type that receives the greatest benefit is a passenger car with 30 seats or more, with an average of 14,132 VND/vehicle/km, the vehicle that receives the least benefit is a truck under 2 tons, with an average benefit of 1,174 VND/km. The average benefit per vehicle unit is 2,616 VND/PCU/km.
Regarding BOT projects, the Ministry of Transport explained that among the 10 state-invested highway projects before 2020 that can be considered for toll collection, there are 3 sections with parallel national highways that are BOT toll collection projects.
According to the forecast of traffic sharing after the expressway is built, the revenue of parallel BOT highway projects is expected to be affected. However, compared to when the state-invested expressway toll collection had not been collected in the recent past, the revenue of parallel BOT highway projects could be improved by about 20%.
Currently, the State has collected road use fees based on the number of vehicles. Collecting fees for highways invested by the State may lead to reactions from traffic participants. There will be opinions that "duplicated fees".
Explaining the lack of duplicate fees, the Ministry of Transport said that expressways bring more benefits to road users than parallel national highways. Road users have the right to choose to travel on parallel national highways (without having to pay extra for expressway use) or pay for expressway use to enjoy higher quality of service and benefits. Collecting expressway use fees for vehicles traveling on expressways invested, owned, managed and operated by the State does not cause duplicate fees.
The level of highway usage fees is determined based on the principle of being consistent with service quality but not exceeding the benefits obtained, the ability to pay of highway users and deducting related taxes and fees collected.
The implementation of expressway toll collection will only be carried out after the expressway project is designed and invested in according to the technical standards and regulations on expressways; construction is completed, put into operation and use according to regulations; toll station installation, software system and equipment are completed to ensure operation and toll collection services.
For expressways put into operation before January 1, 2025 that do not meet the provisions of the Road Law, toll collection will be implemented after meeting the above conditions.
Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/ngan-sach-co-them-hon-2800-ty-dong-moi-nam-nho-thu-phi-cao-toc-192240729162033043.htm
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