“From October 1st: Vehicle Owners Who Don’t Switch to Transportation Accounts Will Not Pass Through Toll Booths”

Only 30% of vehicles have transitioned to transportation accounts so far.

According to Government Decree 119/2024, vehicle owners are responsible for coordinating with road toll payment service providers to transition their existing toll accounts, as per the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 19/2020, to transportation accounts and connect them with cashless payment methods before October 1st, 2025.

Vehicle owners must ensure that there are sufficient funds in the payment methods connected to their transportation accounts when making electronic road toll payments.

If the balance in the connected payment method is insufficient to pay for the toll on expressways, the vehicle will not be allowed to pass through the toll station.

In cases where the balance is insufficient for road toll payments, the vehicle must use the mixed-payment lane at the toll station on the national highway.

If the balance is insufficient for electronic road toll payments, excluding the above two cases, other payment methods can be used at the toll point.

Road toll payment service providers can use the transportation accounts they manage directly for electronic road toll payments for the services they provide.

From October 1st, vehicle owners must transition to transportation accounts

According to statistics, there are currently 6.3 million vehicles using the automatic toll collection service, accounting for almost 100% of the total number of vehicles in the country. However, according to toll service providers, the rate of account transition is very low, with only about 30% of vehicles nationwide having made the switch. The main reason for this is that vehicle owners are unaware of this new regulation.

According to VETC Automatic Toll Collection Co., Ltd., despite implementing multiple solutions, the number of vehicles using the VETC service that have transitioned is still low, with only 1.5 million vehicles out of over 3 million customers completing the transition.

Separation in State Management

Mr. To Nam Toan, Head of Science, Technology, Environment, and International Cooperation Department, Vietnam Road Administration, stated that there have been many cases of fraud through text messages and account openings. As a result, when service providers send text messages or OTP codes to guide vehicle owners through the account transition process, they often mistake them for scams and do not make the transition.

Explaining the reason for the account transition requirement, Mr. Toan said that the toll accounts currently used by vehicle owners include information about the vehicle, the owner, and the funds deposited by the owner for toll payments when passing through toll stations.

Failure to transition will result in an inability to pass through BOT toll stations

Since these are specialized toll accounts, the funds deposited by vehicle owners can only be used for road toll payments and cannot be used for other purposes. Additionally, the money in the toll accounts does not earn interest.

Moreover, the connection between the toll accounts and cashless payment methods has limitations and does not provide convenience to the people and enterprises, especially large transport enterprises that have to deposit a large amount of money into the toll accounts. This has led to backlash from enterprises and individuals because the money in the accounts does not earn interest.

More importantly, the Ministry of Construction is not a specialized unit in managing the money in the toll accounts, so there are many difficulties in managing the toll revenue.

“For the above reasons, during the formulation of Decree 119, the Ministry of Transport (now the Ministry of Construction) agreed with the State Bank on a management method to separate the toll accounts into transportation accounts connected to cashless payment methods such as e-wallets or bank accounts and credit cards. Vehicle owners have the right to choose the payment method to connect to their transportation account,” said Mr. Toan.

The purpose of the account transition is to separate state management, with the Ministry of Construction specializing in managing transportation accounts for electronic toll collection. The State Bank manages cashless payment methods, ensuring legality and safety for the people and enterprises.

More importantly, the money in the cashless payment methods will earn interest. The diversity of payment methods will also provide convenience to vehicle owners, especially large-scale transport enterprises.

Each toll service provider has a cashless payment method (ePass has Viettel Money, MoMo, Visa, etc.; VETC has VETC e-wallet). The process of transitioning from a toll account to a transportation account takes only about 5-10 minutes on the service provider’s application.

“From October 1st, if vehicle owners do not transition their toll accounts to transportation accounts connected to cashless payment methods and do not transfer funds from the toll accounts to the payment methods, it will be considered as not having a card or a transportation account (the previous toll account), in other words, they do not meet the conditions for electronic toll collection and will not be allowed to pass through toll stations,” said Mr. Toan.

Ngân Tuyền (ANTĐ)