VietNamNet Bridge – Draft regulations on fees for pavement use have not been universally welcomed.

However, there remains no clear cut solution for fee collection as the draft document is yet to gain the support from vital people and social organisations.

The city’s authorities plan to collect fees of between 1000 dong and 46,000 dong per square metre of pavement per month.

However, the draft regulations once again faced public opposition when opened for discussion at the HCM City Fatherland Front’s meeting on October 8.

“The draft regulation says the fee is 7000 dong per square metre per month in District 8. This means that there is no difference in the fee imposed on businesses in small hamlets and in prosperous wards,” said Nguyen Cong Danh, deputy chairman of District 8’s Fatherland Front

“A luxury restaurant owner will pay the same fee as a vendor, which is really unfair on the poor,” Danh said.

Agreeing with Danh, an officer of the Transport Safety Committee, Au Duong Kim said the revenue of a luxury café is quite different from the income of a poor household, therefore, it will be unfair to impose the same fee on both.

In reply, deputy director of the HCM City Finance Department Ta Quang Vinh admitted that the drafted fee collection method is not convincing, but said the department had yet to develop anything better.

“If we do not impose fees based on the pavement area used, we will have to impose fees based on the revenues of households. If so, the city’s authorities will have to set up different fee levels applied to every household and to every street,” Vinh said.

“This will lead to thousands of fee levels,” he added.

According to the HCM City Transport Department, there are 160 streets which public car park keeping is allowed. There are also 110 streets where running private businesses is allowed and 72 streets where people can park cars on roadways.

HCM City authorities hope to collect 175 billion dong worth of fees every year for pavement use once the fee collection is implemented.

VietNamNet/VNE