More efforts are required to reduce transport fees after petrol prices were cut five consecutive times, according to the Ministry of Transport.

After five cuts which brought petrol prices down by around 20 per cent in the past month, substantial reductions in transportation fees were widely expected.

However, just a modest number of transport firms have started to reduce their fees while others are seemingly waiting for the next adjustments in petrol prices to decide.

The Ministry of Transport recently asked the price management and stabilisation effort to be enhanced to prevent unreasonable increases and sluggishness in adjusting transportation fees along with petrol price fluctuations.

The ministry said that it was critical to enhance the transparency of price listing to minimise the impacts of increases due to psychological factors and inflation expectations and prevent false rumours affecting market price levels.

According to Nguyen Tuyen, Head of the Transport Department under the Ha Noi Department of Transport, about 30 per cent of transportation firms in the capital city declared reductions in their fees with rates of between 5 to 10 per cent.

He said that the department would focus on inspecting firms, which had increased transportation fees when fuel prices increased but had not made any moves to reduce fees when fuel prices decreased significantly.

The municipal Department of Transport also received the applications for fee reductions of more than 10 taxi companies in the capital city by around VND500-1,000 per kilometre, meaning decreases of about 6-12 per cent if approved.

Ly Truong Son, Director of My Dinh Bus Station, said that while some firms operating in the bus station increased their fees by around 10 per cent in the April-June period, some kept their fees unchanged in the past one or two years. The COVID-19 pandemic heavily pushed transport firms into difficulty, and they had not taken into account fee reductions, he said.

Director of Giap Bat Bus Station Nguyen Tat Thanh said that while firms had not completed transportation fee adjustments, fuel prices had been adjusted again, causing difficulty to firms.

Many firms operating at the southern station kept the fees unchanged during the past 1-2 years due to fear of procedures.

According to Nguyen Cong Hung, Chairman of Ha Noi Taxi Association, a fee of VND150,000 per vehicle each time there is a fare adjustment costs taxi companies a lot of money, and taxi companies need to have a roadmap and plan for fee reductions.

Khuc Huu Thanh Hai, a representative of Dat Cang Taxi, said because petrol prices were not stable, but moving up and down erratically, firms faced a lot of difficulties in keeping up with petrol price fluctuations.

Ngo Tri Long, an economic expert, said that the most important thing was keeping fuel prices stable so that transport firms could develop their business plans. Adjusting transportation fees along with every adjustment in fuel price is not effective in the long term. — VNS