(To Quoc) – “The Investor considered the service fee to harmonize the interests of the Government, investor and the people”, said Mr. Nguyen Tan Dong, Deputy Chairman of Deo Ca Investment Joint Stock Company.
On September 21st, Deoca Investment Joint Stock Company said they had detailed information on adjusting the service fee through the Bac Hai Van toll station (in Lang Co town, Thua Thien – Hue province).
According to this company, although they were allowed to adjust the service fee through Bac Hai Van toll station from March 2019, the project investor decided to delay to September 27th, 2019 and proposed the rate lower than stipulated one allowed in the project contract. The investor proposed a lower rate than the stipulated one.
In Official Letter no. 8543/BGTVT-DTCT on the content of adjusting the service fee for using Bac Hai Van toll station, Ministry of Transport said that according to contract signed on March 13th, 2019 by and between Ministry of Transport and the investor and project company, Bac Hai Van toll station collects fee to payback for Hai Van road tunnel and Phuoc Tuong – Phu Gia road tunnel with the fee in period 2019 – 2020 of 90,000 VND / vehicle of type 1 / turn. Ministry of Transport believes that this rate is suitable according to Circular 60/TT-BGTVT (Circular 60) issued on December 21st, 2019.
However, on August 22nd, 2019, Deoca Investment Joint Stock Company sent a document to Ministry of Transport proposing the rate of 70,000 VND / vehicle of type 1 / turn from September 27th, 2019. Ministry of Transport stated that the above rate was “lower than the rate stipulated in the project contract and the people had the right for selection”.
“The Investor considered the collection of service fee to harmonize the interests of the Government, investor and the people”, said Mr. Nguyen Tan Dong, Deputy Chairman of Deo Ca Investment Joint Stock Company.
Bac Hai Van Toll Station. Photo: Duc Hoang
In fact, from January 01st, 2016, Deoca Investment Joint Stock Company received and took responsibility for paying the management and operation fee of Hai Van tunnel according to the plan signed with Ministry of Transport, after completing phase 1 of project of Hai Van 1 tunnel repair, upgrade and renovation of the 25km road surface on the road to the pass in August 2017, the company was allowed to install Nam Hai Van toll station for capital payback.
But this expected toll station is only 12km far away from Bac Hai Van toll station, which does not comply with the regulation, Ministry of Transport decided to abandon Nam Hai Van toll station. At the same time, the Ministry decided on the consolidated collection of the fee of the above project at Bac Hai Van station.
This consolidated collection prioritizes the payback of 19 years for Phuoc Tuong – Phu Gia tunnel according to decision of Ministry of Transport (June 2018) so every year Deo Ca Investment Joint Stock Company is only allocated from the collection of fee from Bac Hai Van toll station. The reason of not installing the toll station but only using the allocated money source makes the company not have enough expenditure to cover the operating costs. The company has proposed the Ministry of Transport many times for consideration and solution.
Bac Hai Van toll station starts adjusting the ticket fare from 00:00 on 27 September 2019.
Harmonizing the people’s interests – company’s interests
The long-term collection of payback fee for the project with the price applied in accordance with Circular no. 35/2016/TT-BGTVT (Circular 35) of Ministry of Transport stipulates the price of road use service. At the same time, people have the right to pay fee to shorten the time, ensure the safety when passing through the tunnel or passing the pass without any charge.
The fee applied to the tunnel under this Circular is not suitable because the ticket fare is collected the same as the road and bridge fee, while road tunnel is a works with large total investment which greatly affects the payback ability in the long run.
From 2017, Ministry of Transport said that they were also aware of the difference in the tunnel and road investment, so they directed the involved agencies to study and adjust Circular 35 to issue the appropriate service price frame with the specific characteristics of the tunnel works.
Although, on March 04th, 2019, Ministry of Transport approved the adjustment of the financial plan for the Road Tunnel Project through Ca pass (including Ca pass and Co Ma tunnel, Cu Mong and Hai Van tunnels), the fee collected at Bac Hai Van toll station is adjusted according to Circular 60 which amends and supplements some articles of Circular 35 but the investor has delayed the time to the end of September which is a great effort to harmonize the benefits and rights if knowing that the investor spent nearly 300 billion VND to operate Hai Van 1 tunnel, excluding 900 billion VND to repair and upgrade phase 1, the National Assembly decides to recover 1,180 billion VND of the state budget which has been arranged for the project, the implementation of fee collection at La Son – Tuy Loan toll station has not been carried out, the bank tightens the disbursement ...
The location plan of Bac Hai Van toll station.
According to Hai Van Tunnel Operation Enterprise, after being put into operation in 2005 until now, Hai Van tunnel has welcomed nearly 29 million vehicles passing through the tunnel which greatly contributes to the goods trading, accident reduction, promotion of regional and national economic development. Not only that, this tunnel also brings back social benefits contributing to the environmental protection that is difficult to be quantified.
In addition, the project expanding the evacuation tunnel to Hai Van Road Tunnel into the main tunnel with the total length of over 12.6 km, in which, the northern road (located in Lang Co town) is 2.1 km long, the Southern path (in Hoa Hiep Bac ward) is 4.3 km long, the tunnel is 6.2 km longer, with the total investment of over 7 thousand billion VND which will be opened in October 2019 and it is expected to be completed and put into operation in 2020.
Duc Hoang
