Le Anh and Minh Tam
Coaches are seen at Mien Dong Coach Station. Over half of the transport firms at the station have registered to lower charges by 2-14% - PHOTO: LE ANH
The department’s head Nguyen Anh Tuan was quoted by Tuoi Tre newspaper as saying that publicizing the firms slow in transport charge reductions is an effective measure to protect the interests of consumers.
Tuan said inspectors of the ministries and finance and transport have fanned out to provinces to check transport firms and fine those not complying.
Inspections of the two ministries have brought some results, as the ministry said transport enterprises in 43 out of 63 provinces and cities have adjusted down charges by 1-25%.
The ministry said 57 out of 60 transport firms in Haiphong City had cut prices by 1.3-18% as of last week.
In Nghe An Province, almost all transport companies had revised down charges by 2-25% as of last week, and many of them had made the second round of cuts.
As for airfares, reductions have been applied to the air routes only operated by Vietnam Airlines or its subsidiary Vietnam Air Services Company (VASCO). For instance, one-way fares have been adjusted down by up to 30% to VND1.085 million for the HCMC-Con Dao flight and by 15% to just over VND1.317 million for HCMC-Ca Mau and Danang-Pleiku routes.
Low-cost carriers Jetstar Pacific and VietJetAir have had to offer lower ticket prices than before to compete for passengers.
At a meeting in HCMC last Thursday, Thuong Thanh Hai, deputy director of Mien Dong Coach Station, said 115 out of 207 enterprises active at the coach station have registered for 2-14% fare reductions and the remaining firms would cut surcharges for the trips during the Lunar New Year holiday (Tet).
Tran Van Phuong, deputy director of Mien Tay Coach Station, said 110 out of 130 enterprises there have reduced charges.
According to the Ministry of Finance, after multiple fuel retail price reductions, transport charges have gone down but trivially. But the ministry wants further cuts after the 15th and last fuel price cut last week.
In HCMC, as of late last year, taxi fares had fallen 3-9% and bus fares 2-14%.
Nguyen Quoc Thien, head of the Price Management Department at the HCMC Department of Finance, said taxi and bus fares should have gone down by at least 8.4% and 11% respectively.
The HCMC Department of Finance has urged enterprises to review and lower their charges, and report to the department by the end of this month.
On January 1, the Ministry of Transport set up working groups to inspect charges at transport enterprises, including airlines, in Haiphong, Hanoi, Danang, Khanh Hoa, Daklak, HCMC and Can Tho. Last Friday, the ministry sent inspectors to taxi operators which have not registered fare reductions or have not slashed fares in accordance with the fuel price drops.
Some transport enterprises said it was not easy to reduce charges in the lead up to Tet despite the sharp fuel price fall last week.
Đăng ký: VietNam News