LookAtVietnam – The Ministry of Transport is working on a scheme to set up the Road Maintenance Fund, which is sourced from additional fees imposed on motorbikes and cars.

Motorbike owners will have to pay this fee once when they registered their new vehicles. The fee will be from 300,000 to 1.5 million don depending on the vehicle capacity.

Car owners will have to pay the fee annually when their vehicles are checked, with 1.2 million dong for cars of less than 12 seats, trucks of less than two tones and buses. Other kinds of cars will have to pay 20 percent more.

According to the ministry’s calculation, this fee can contribute over 3.6 trillion dong to the Road Maintenance Fund. Deputy Minister Le Manh Hung said that the annual capital for maintaining roads only satisfies 50-60 percent of the need and this fee will be a good source for road maintenance.

Hung said if roads are well maintained, it will be good for vehicles. The people should consider using road as the use of other public services like tap water, power, telephone and they have to pay for using better services.

Dr. Ronald Allan, the World Bank’s consulter, said that this fund operates in many countries. However, once the fee is collected, the road must have better quality and the spending of the fee must be public. The fund should be supervised by representatives of road users and the government.

VietNamNet/VNE