The Ministry of Transport “asked” to use state capital to buy back a BOT project that “broken” the financial plan, proposed to increase fees

Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The said that in 2018 the Ministry of Transport coordinated with ministries, branches and localities to conduct a general review of BOT toll stations, identify and classify obstacles problems and inadequacies of toll stations/BOT projects in order to develop handling solutions suitable to the specific conditions of each toll station/BOT project, ensuring harmony between the interests of the State, enterprises and service users.

The Ministry of Transport raised problems and inadequacies in traffic BOT projects

Regarding difficulties in BOT toll revenue, Minister Nguyen Van The stated: Due to the characteristics of traffic BOT projects with a large total investment, the capital recovery period lasts up to over 20 years. Therefore, the forecasted data on transport demand is only guaranteed to a certain degree of accuracy; especially when the government adjusts policies and laws, socio-economic development targets, adjusts and supplements local planning, etc., it will greatly affect the revenue and financial efficiency of the company. BOT projects.

While all traffic BOT projects have not yet been applied the risk-sharing mechanism, so it is often difficult, even leading to business bankruptcy and causing bad debts to credit institutions when the BOT project goes down. revenue reduction.

According to the review results, out of a total of 70 projects, so far 54 projects are collecting fees for payback, the remaining projects have not been charged or are stopping toll collection for settlement and contract liquidation.

Of the total 54 projects that are collecting fees, 41/54 projects have revenue lower than the expected revenue in the project contract, of which 19 projects have a revenue of less than 70%, especially 3 projects. projects with revenue of less than 30% of the financial plan, disrupting the financial plan, including: BOT project to build Thai Ha bridge connecting the two provinces of Thai Binh and Ha Nam; BOT project to upgrade and expand Ho Chi Minh road, section Km1738+148 – Km1763+610, Dak Lak province; Binh Loi railway bridge construction project.

There are two main groups of reasons for the decrease in revenue mentioned in the report by Minister Nguyen Van The.

First, the group of causes comes from state agencies.

According to the direction of the Government in Resolution No. 35/NQ-CP dated May 16, 2016, the Ministry of Transport and BOT enterprises reduce fares for vehicles adjacent to toll stations and reduce fares for means of group 4, 5.

At the same time, the fee has not been increased according to the schedule in the BOT contract (according to the BOT contract, the projects are expected to consider adjusting the fee increase once after three years, however, in the last 7 years, the enterprise has not been allowed to increase the fee. according to the route).

Second, the group of causes due to unforeseen circumstances includes: Vehicle traffic through toll booths on some routes is lower than forecast, which is caused by the formation of new routes. parallel roads, crossroads near tollgate areas leading to vehicles avoiding toll stations and the implementation of the planning; the socio-economic development plan did not meet the forecast;

The impact and impact of the Covid-19 pandemic led to a decrease in revenue, especially the stop of toll collection to ensure isolation and epidemic prevention;

An increase in means of vehicles using monthly/quarterly/yearly tickets and vehicles passing through tollgates several times a day (there are vehicles passing through toll stations over 10 times a day) but only having to pay a fee once.

The Ministry of Transport “asked” to use state capital to buy back a BOT project that “broken” the financial plan, proposed to increase fees

For revenue problems, the Ministry of Transport increased the BOT fee under the contract. Currently, the Ministry of Transport is directing agencies to review and evaluate the specific conditions of each BOT project and propose an appropriate fee increase roadmap, both to remove difficulties for BOT businesses but not to have much impact on costs. freight charges and the State’s economic regulation policy. On that basis, the Ministry will decide according to its competence and soon implement it.

Minister Nguyen Van The also proposed the competent authority to allow credit institutions to restructure debts, freeze debts for some BOT investment credit loans that are at risk of generating bad debts due to a decrease in loans. turnover.

Particularly for 3 BOT projects, the financial plan is broken (including 02 projects with too low revenue, which are the Thai Ha bridge construction investment BOT project, the BOT project to upgrade and expand Ho Chi Minh road in Dak province, Dak province). Lak) and 01 project could not deploy toll collection (Binh Loi railway bridge construction project). The Ministry of Transport proposes the competent authority to allow the use of state capital to pay investment costs to terminate the contract ahead of time.

In addition, there are currently three other BOT projects with potential risks of breaking the financial plan and needing support from the state, according to Minister Nguyen Van The.

Specifically: Cai Lay BOT project, Tien Giang province, up to now, the Ministry of Transport and the locality have agreed on a solution to handle inadequacies but still have potential risks.

BOT project to renovate National Highway 26, at present, the toll collection situation is basically stable; however, it is expected to be diverted and revenue will decrease after the Khanh Hoa – Buon Ma Thuot Expressway is put into operation.

Van Lang bridge BOT project connects Viet Tri city, Phu Tho province with Ba Vi district, Hanoi city, according to investor reports, the current revenue is about 30% of the contract.

“For these projects, the Ministry of Transport is continuing to thoroughly evaluate to propose appropriate solutions,” emphasized the transport sector commander.