Ho Chi Minh City to collect road fees from bikers next month

Under the decision, owners of motorbikes with engines of up to 100 cubic centimeters (cc) will have to pay VND50,000 (US$2.3) per annum, and those who own bikes with 100-175 cc engines will be liable for a higher rate, VND100,000 ($4.6) per year.

As for bikes with engines of over 175 cc, the fee rate will be VND150,000 ($6.9) per year. No fee will be imposed on electric bicycles.

The people’s committees of wards, communes and towns are tasked with instructing motorbike owners to fill out fee declaration forms for motorbike use, according to the fee collection plan of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport, said Ngo Hai Duong, deputy head of the Road Development Division under the department.

Based on such declarations, competent agencies will collect the fees and grant fee receipts to the payers, the department said in the plan.

According to the decision, motorcycle owners will have to pay the fee by July 31 for the whole of 2015 for bikes registered before January 1 this year.

For bikes registered from January 1 to June 30 every year, their owners are required to pay the fee within July every year; and for vehicles registered from July 1 to December 31 every year, their owners must pay the charge by January 31 of the following year at the latest.

Failure to pay the fee will lead to a fine that is two or three times the payable fee amount, but the highest fine is set at VND50 million ($2,300).

The fee collection is stipulated in Government Decree 18/2012 dated March 13, 2012 on the establishment, management and use of the Road Maintenance Fund.

Based on the decree, the Ministry of Finance issued a circular to stipulate two fee ranges, including the VND50,000-100,000 ($2.3-4.6) range per year for electric bicycles and motorbikes with 50 - 100 cc engines and the VND100,000-150,000 range per year for those with engine sizes of over 100 cc.

Based on these ranges, People’s Councils in provinces and cities will determine their own rates that fit their social and economic characteristics.

Under the decree, users of motorized vehicles were supposed to pay a road maintenance fee, which was intended to feed the fund, from June 1, 2012, but the government later delayed the fee collection until January 1, 2013, given that people were facing difficulties in their daily lives due to the troubled economy.

However, while all other localities have set out their own fee rates and collected them since 2013, Ho Chi Minh City has continued to postpone its fee collection to spare residents any further burdens until now.