HÀ NỘI — Service price mechanism will be applicable on fees and charges of 17 types of services and goods from January 1, 2017, a Finance Ministry official said.

During a meeting organised on December 27 by the Ministry of Finance, Director of the ministry’s Price Management Department Nguyễn Anh Tuấn explained the new price mechanism, saying the State will no longer collect the fees of some 17 goods and services but just be responsible for determining their specific prices.

The 17 types of goods and services which applied service price mechanism include water-related public services; veterinary drug testing services; cadastral measurements and cadastral mapping services in cases when the State assigns land, leases land or changes the purpose of land use in areas where there is no cadastral map and fee for the use of surface areas at marketplaces; as well as ferry toll and Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) road toll, port and terminals services fee and parking charge and sanitation charge, Tuấn said.

He added that the government’s intention to switch to a service price mechanism aims to encourage private-public partnership projects and attract investment to improve the quality of public services, which essentially causes no change in the State’s revenue.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the State’s revenue earned from fees and charges previously accounted for less than five per cent of the total State budget’s revenue.

Regarding the basis for such decisions, Tuấn informed the meeting of the latest changes in pricing law as contained in Decree No. 149/2016/NĐ-CP, dated November 11, 2016, of the government on amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 177/2013/NĐ-CP, dated November 14, 2013, by the government, providing guidance on the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Pricing.

Tuấn said the adjustment and determination of prices of the 17 types of goods and services has been assigned to Ministry of Finance; Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs; as well as Ministry of Industry and Trade and Ministry of Health, along with the people’s committees of cities and provinces within the country.

He added that the appointed bodies would be in charge of determining maximum prices, minimum prices and price range for the goods and services. He also noted that the fees would then be collected by non-state sectors.— VNS