A car parking site along the Bui Thi Xuan Street in District 1 of HCM City. Those who invest in building parking lots may be exempted from land use fees and land lease payments in the city. — VNA/VNS Photo Hoang Hai

HCM CITY (Biz Hub) — Those who invest in building parking lots may be exempted from land use fees and land lease payments, if the municipal People's Committee's recommendations go into effect.

The committee also recommended other incentives to encourage parking lot construction, such as reducing corporate income tax and import tax for investors who import high tech equipment for the parking lots.

Additionally, the committee suggested listing parking construction projects as infrastructure development projects rather than real estate projects in order to make it easier for investors to access bank loans.

The city faces a critical shortage of parking areas. Under Government decision 58/QD-TTg, approved last year, the city aimed to have 1,145ha of parking space by 2020. Currently, however, there are less than 77ha.

Few taxi firms have enough financial capacity to rent parking spaces at night, so drivers park in the road. And while more than 3,200 buses are operating in the city, they have barely 16ha of parking space. The consequence is that parks and public entertainment areas are built narrowly to make room for bus parking. Half of Park 23-9 in District 1 is used as a parking area.

The municipal authority blamed the shortage of parking lots on the fact that administrative procedures for land allocation and investment were too complicated.

Vice director of the city's Transport Department Duong Hong Thanh said that current incentives were not attractive enough to investors.

The shortage of parking areas meant that trucks were often overloaded, as firms lacked space to unload goods, he said. — VNS