Vehicles not subject to environmental protection fees: ministry

All means of transportation, including motorbikes, will not be affected by the decree on environmental protection fees currently being drafted, the Ministry of Finance has clarified.

The ministry, which is drafting the decree, said there was no formula to determine the amount of emission and pollution caused by vehicles and, as such, no mechanism to fix any fee thereof.

Motorbikes, in particular, are means of transportation and income for many low-income people; therefore, the imposition of such fees is not feasible. Therefore, the draft decree will not apply to means of transportation at the moment, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) has expressed concern over possible overlap between environmental protection fees and environmental protection taxes, pointing to units using coal and petroleum as fuel as examples.

In further clarification, the Ministry of Finance has said taxes aim to restrict the use of polluted materials, while fees aim to encourage the use of technology to reduce pollution. It said the terms would remain in the draft decree.

The draft decree on environmental protection fees for emissions aims to help achieve sustainable growth, improve environment quality and people’s health as well as reduce polluting projects, the finance ministry has said.

The draft includes a fixed fee of VND3 million ($124) per year that can be paid in quarterly instalments. The variable cost is the product of the emission (cubic meters), the concentration of pollution (milligram per normal cubic meter), the fees for the four types of pollution (in VND per ton), and a constant of 10 to the power of minus nine.

The fees for pollution are set at VND800 ($0.033) per ton of dust, VND800 per ton of nitrous oxides, VND700 per ton of sulfur oxides and VND500 per ton of carbon monoxide.