Road passenger transport was most damaged in the pandemic. A bus resumes carrying passengers in May. — Photo cafef.vn

HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Transport (MoT) recently asked the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to exempt and reduce the road maintenance fees for transport vehicles and firms affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

MoT said thousands of firms, cooperatives and household businesses in the passenger transport sector were facing difficulties during the pandemic. More than 310,000 vehicles have been operating in moderation and hundreds of thousands of workers have lost income.

The ministry said roadway passenger transport was most damaged in the pandemic, especially when all means of road transport had to stop since April 1 under the Prime Minister’s direction of social distancing. In Q1, passenger transport was directly affected with revenue decreasing by 75 per cent and goods transport decreasing by 30-40 per cent compared to the same period in 2019.

According to MoT, in at least one or two months, the transport firms could get back to normal.

To help the firms, MoT proposed that MoF should exempt or reduce the road maintenance fees for more than 800,000 vehicles of passenger transport firms. Specifically, MoF should considered a 30 per cent reduction for March and ease all the road maintenance fees in April and a 50 per cent reduction for May, followed by another 15 per cent reduction in June.

As goods transport was less affected by the pandemic, MoT asked for a 10 per cent reduction in road maintenance fees in March, a 25 per cent reduction in April and a 5 per cent reduction in May. — VNS