Motorbike owners rebel over new road-use fees

National Road 1A during rush hour. Motorbike owners are worried about how to budget for an increase in road-use fees that starts today. - VNA/VNS Photo Khuong Duy

Under new rules by the Ministry of Finance, all motorbikes now pay what were once the top of the range of fees.

Owners pay VND100,000 (previously VND50,000 to 100,000) for motorbikes at or under 100cc and VND150,000 (previously VNS100,000-150,000) for motorbikes more than 100cc.

Nguyen Thi Thu, who works for Thanh Duc Company in HCM City's Tan Phu District, said the higher fees would burden her family.

She makes VND4 million (US$190) per month, but has to pay for meals, rent and her children's school fees.

Le Thi Thao, who lives on Tay Son Street in Ha Noi's Dong Da District, said that she wanted to know where the extra money from fees would go, and how it would be used. She asked her residential quarter leader who collected the fees, but the leader could not answer.

Some heads of residential quarters and chairmen of communes assigned to collect the fees have refused to do so. Nguyen Van Kha, chairman of the Tam Hiep Commune in Ha Noi's Phuc Tho District, said residents would not pay the fees because no one had been fined yet for refusing.

Last year the commune collected fees from only 30 per cent of the 1,800 motorbikes owned by its residents.

"I'm afraid collecting fees will be difficult and complicated," said Le Thi Kim Dung, deputy chairwoman of the Ward 16 People's Committee in HCM City's Go Vap District. "The amount of motorbikes in the ward is not stable because there are so many immigrants."

Under the new rules, ward people's committees will manage the road-use fees with supervision from the State Treasury system.

More than 200,000km of local roads in need of maintenance would benefit from the new fee collection, so co-operation from residents was vital, said Le Hoang Minh, chief of the secretariat of the Viet Nam National Road Maintenance Fund.