New policy might eliminate mandatory mechanic inspections for new cars

A staff works at a local registration centre in the coastal south central province of Phu Yen (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi - Starting July 1 of this year, newly acquired vehicles might no longer be required a mandatory mechanic examination during registration for road use under a new policy being mulled.

According to Vietnam Register, new vehicle owners would need only present the vehicle registration certificate to a local registration centre to obtain the necessary registration stamp and purchase the road maintenance fee.

The motivation behind this policy shift is to streamline the registration process and provide greater convenience for individuals and businesses.

By eliminating the need to bring new cars to registration centres physically, significant time and cost savings are expected to be realised.

The agency said that cars under nine seats are exempt from the first registration fee for 30 months, while trucks are exempt for 24 months.

According to the agency's calculation, each vehicle owner will save from 250,000-570,000 VND (10.50-24 USD), depending on the type of vehicle, if they are exempt from the first registration fee.

Previously, the agency submitted an amendment draft to Circular 16/2021/TT-BGTVT of the Ministry of Transport on the verification of technical safety, and environmental protection and speeding up the completion of regulations on the first-time registration exemption for new vehicles.

In addition, the agency will continue to build a more comprehensive management system through the registration application, where people can book a verification appointment and pay all fees online.

The National Traffic Safety Committee statistics show that about 548,000 new cars were registered nationwide last year.

If the proposal had been applied since last year, hundreds of billions of VND could have been saved.

Currently, many vehicle registration centres have been closed down amid a widening investigation into systemic corruption case taking place at Vietnam Register.

As of March 1, 2023, there are 281 registration centres across the nation with 489 evaluation systems. 59 centres have been suspended, mostly in Hanoi and HCM City, leading to serious backlog of vehicles waiting for their turns.

About 1,500 vehicle inspectors are currently working, while there need to be at least about 2,000 inspectors to meet the public demands, according to authorities.

Car sales on the decline after policy effects wear off After hitting record sales last year thanks to incentives and high demand, Vietnam’s car consumption his showing signs of slowing.

Closing policy gaps for plastics and plastic waste More than 60 delegates from environmental authorities, media agencies, businesses, environmental networks, and social organisations have participated in the Dialogue on plastic and plastic waste – Closing the policy gaps event organised by the For Vietnamese Stature Foundation (VSF) on February 28 in Hanoi.