The Tao Xuyen toll booth on National Highway No.1 passing Hoang Ly Commune of the northern province of Thanh Hoa was still collecting fees on Monday despite a suspension order signed by the Minister of Transport a week earlier. The toll booth was set up by the BOT Thanh Hoa Bypass JSC in a bid to recoup its investment on the bypass to Thanh Hoa City. However, the booth has triggered public complaints as it is allowed to collect double fees compared with other toll booths, while it was built in a location where vehicles that are not even using the bypass have to pay fees. The toll booth was thus asked to stop operation as of October 1, according to a directive by Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang on September 24. The minister also stated in the fiat that Thanh Hoa should send a document to the ministry by September 30 if it wanted to extend the operation of the toll booth. But the province has since submitted no document, according to the provincial people’s committee’s spokesperson Do Quoc Canh. Meanwhile, Le Van Thom, head of the Tao Xuyen toll booth, told Tuoi Tre on Monday that they had received no orders regarding a suspension. “So we still continued collecting fees,” he said. The toll booth thus remained operational until Monday, when the minister issued an urgent document to reiterate the order. The toll booth officially closed at 2pm. Earlier the Ministry of Transport ordered the toll booth’s operator to relocate it to Bim Son Town, 32km north off the current location. The relocation was expected to be done by the end of last month, but the operator failed to complete the construction for the new toll booth because the town’s authorities have yet to complete site clearance tasks.