The Government Office has conveyed Standing Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Tuc's direction to address problems in electronic road-toll payments.
The deputy prime minister assigned the Ministry of Construction to lead the work with the ministries of Finance, Industry and Trade, Justice, Science and Technology, the State Bank of Vietnam and other agencies. They will study solutions to possible problems in road-use fee payments.
The review must preserve vehicle owners' right to choose a service for paying road-use fees, comply with signed contracts and avoid increasing charges for road-use fee payments contrary to the law.
The Ministry of Construction must report to the prime minister by November 15.
Earlier, the ministry told the deputy prime minister that VETC and Viettel Money planned to charge individual customers VND 6,600 per month and organizations and companies VND 66,000 per month for an electronic wallet linked to a traffic account.
After the information emerged, the Ministry of Construction instructed the Vietnam Road Administration to clarify the fee policy, the calculation basis and the customers covered with the companies. The companies were asked to suspend the rollout while they reviewed the plan.
How the traffic account is linked to payment
The ministry said a traffic account should be distinguished from the payment instrument linked to it. Under Decree No. 119/2024/ND-CP, a traffic account stores information about a vehicle and its owner but does not hold money. When a transaction occurs, the amount is deducted from the payment instrument selected by the vehicle owner.
The payment instrument may be an electronic wallet, a credit card or another cashless method supported by the system. A traffic account can be connected to only one cashless payment instrument at a time.
The ministry said the planned VETC and Viettel Money charge is a fee for using a payment instrument and falls under banking laws. It is not a road-use fee or a fee for managing and maintaining a traffic account.
The companies said the charge would cover electronic-wallet investment and operating costs, customer identification, bank connections, transaction processing, reconciliation, security and data protection.
A vehicle owner may cancel the link to the current payment instrument and choose another. This does not terminate the traffic account or affect its continued use.
The ministry also proposed flexible pricing: a charge per transaction, a fee calculated as a share of the transaction value, or no fee for vehicles that use the service infrequently. It said traffic accounts should also be connected to more banks and payment intermediaries to give residents more choice.
At the end of July, VETC and Viettel Money, the payment partner linked to ePass, announced plans to charge for an electronic wallet linked to a traffic account from August 1. The planned fee was VND 6,600 per month for individuals and VND 66,000 per month for organizations and companies.
After criticism, both companies soon announced that they would suspend the policy while reviewing it and considering another option.
Sources: Dân Trí
