From heavy losses to near-equity
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport has just sent a report to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee on resolving problems in the management of temporary use of roadways for car parking.
According to the Department of Transport, the activity of collecting parking fees for cars on 20 streets in Districts 1, 5 and 10 has been implemented by the Youth Volunteer Public Service Company Limited since December 2020.
The report of the Youth Volunteer Public Service Company Limited shows that in 2021, more than 2 billion VND was collected but more than 4 billion VND was spent (a loss of more than 2 billion).
By 2022, the revenue increased to 5.36 billion VND, but it still lost nearly 398 million VND.
In 2023, for the first time, a profit of VND 490 million was recorded with a total revenue of more than VND 7.65 billion and a expenditure of VND 7.15 billion.
By 2024, total revenue will reach more than 8.05 billion VND but costs will also increase to more than 8.13 billion VND, causing a loss of more than 80 million VND.
In the 4 years (2021 - 2024), Ho Chi Minh City collected more than VND23.1 billion from this activity, but the total expenditure was still more than VND25.1 billion - equivalent to a loss of about VND2 billion.
High cost, large loss of revenue due to many shortcomings
Detailed analysis shows that the cost of operating the system is still quite large. Of the total expenditure of more than 25.1 billion VND, more than 9.4 billion VND is for salaries, nearly 3.2 billion VND for salary items (social insurance, health insurance, mid-shift meals, ...).
In addition, nearly 8 billion VND was spent on My Parking software, about 3.2 billion VND is the cost of company management,...
In addition, a major cause leading to the inability to balance revenue and expenditure is the high rate of loss.
According to the report of Youth Volunteer Public Service Company Limited, from 2021 to 2024, there will be a total of 362,989 cases of unpaid parking, causing a loss of more than 7.25 billion VND.
My Parking software - a toll collection tool is assessed to have many shortcomings such as slow processing speed, or OTP errors, connection errors that take time for the installer.
Some organizations and individuals doing business in areas with parking lots also arbitrarily occupy parking lots to serve business activities, prevent other vehicles from parking and are ready to cause trouble when reminded.
The situation of some subjects arbitrarily guiding their vehicles to the parking lot and illegally collecting money also occurred on many routes such as Ho Huan Nghiep, Ngo Duc Ke, Phan Chu Trinh, Dong Du, Thu Khoa Huan, Nguyen Cu Trinh, Cao Thang, ... hindering the activities of officially collecting tolls.
According to the Department of Transport, from January to March 2025, the toll collection unit has piloted the collection of car parking fees using traditional traditional Chinese technology technology on 3 routes (Hai Ba Trung, Le Lai and Pham Huu Chi). Initial results were very positive when the revenue reached more than 1.3 billion VND, an increase of 87% over the same period last year.
From April 15, 2025, RFID technology will be deployed on all 20 toll routes.
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Taxation believes that when the new technology is synchronously applied, the revenue will exceed the expenditure.
To effectively implement, the Department of Transport recommends that the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee continue to assign the fee collection unit to proactively apply advanced technology, select a unit to provide appropriate solutions, research on installing a surveillance camera system and handling violations through images.
The Department also proposed that the authorities of Districts 1, 5, and 10 together with the Ho Chi Minh City Police strengthen inspection and handling of cases of illegal stopping and parking.
In the long term, following the orientation of Resolution 98, the Department of Transport has proactively reviewed a number of favorable locations to build high-rise parking lots. When there is direction from the City People's Committee and guidance from the Department of Construction, relevant units will carry out construction.
