Tenants disagree
Reflecting to Lao Dong Newspaper, households renting houses in the worker housing area of Thien Loc commune (Hanoi City) said that recently, they received a notice to collect environmental sanitation service fees for the years 2024, 2025 at a rate of 40,000 VND/household/month, implemented by Dong Anh Urban Environment Joint Stock Company.
Talking to reporters, Mr. Doan Anh Dung (a rented worker) said that before December 2023, sanitation service fees were collected by the Social Housing Management and Development Enterprise (the unit directly managing the building) along with electricity, water, house and service fees. In 2 years (2024, 2025), people did not see sanitation service fees collected, and no notice of the cause was seen.
Mr. Doan Anh Dung affirmed that all people did not receive notifications about the price increase right at the time of the price increase (2 years ago) but only recently received notifications.
Besides, Mr. Dung said that, according to his investigation, the collection level according to this notice is much higher than the old level. According to a February 2023 collection receipt of an apartment in CT1A building that reporters obtained, the environmental sanitation fee is 20,000 VND/household/month.
According to Mr. Dung's calculations, with a price of 40,000 VND/household/month, each household will have to pay 960,000 VND for environmental sanitation service fees for 2 years. "I am willing to pay money when the company recovers it, but it must be collected at the correct level according to State regulations on domestic waste for households" - Mr. Dung expressed.
Response from the company
Talking to reporters by phone on February 27, Mr. Dao Duc Khanh - Deputy Director of Dong Anh Urban Environment Joint Stock Company - said that the case of the worker housing area in Thien Loc commune is applied according to Decision 54/2016/QD-UBND of Hanoi City People's Committee dated December 31, 2016, specifically belonging to the group "Other organizations and establishments". Accordingly, the price applied to other organizations and establishments is 208,000 VND/m3 and 500,000 VND/ton.
According to Mr. Khanh, if it is ordinary people's houses or apartment buildings without management organizations, they will collect according to individuals, but workers' housing areas are managed by enterprises, so belonging to the category "other organizations and establishments", they still have to sign contracts with prices of 208,000 VND/m3 and 500,000 VND/ton.
It is known that the group "other organizations and establishments" applies environmental sanitation service prices to ordinary industrial waste. Mr. Khanh exemplified that if a company signs a contract to collect and transport waste with other agencies and units, ordinary industrial waste and domestic waste are mixed and share a single price, without separate distinction, and these two types of waste share a common treatment method.
Mr. Khanh said that all agencies, units, and establishments in the area often generate both ordinary industrial waste in the process of production and business services and domestic waste in the process of living.
The company representative added that the company collects fees for collecting and transporting garbage on behalf of the State for the State to pay back for sanitation maintenance activities, not to collect money for the company.
Mr. H.D. D (a renter at CT1A building) expressed disagreement with the above price, saying that this is an unreasonable level. He proposed that the company apply the service price for collecting and transporting domestic waste for individuals, residing in communes and towns, with a price of 3,000 VND/person/month. According to Mr. H.H. D, households living elsewhere apply this fee for collecting and transporting domestic waste, why do tenants at the building who are also households living like that apply a different price?
My family is 4 people, all the waste is domestic waste. I only dump garbage once every 2-3 days. Therefore, applying the collection and transportation service fee for garbage in the past 2 years as proposed by the company, which is 40,000 VND/household, is unreasonable" - Mr. H.D. D said.
