According to Circular 197 of the Finance Ministry, car owners who have yet to pay the road maintenance fee will be fined starting today, July 1, nationwide, an official said.

Major General Nguyen Van Tuyen, head of the Road and Railway Traffic Department under the Ministry of Public Security, confirmed this information with Tuoi Tre on Sunday, adding that motorbike owners will be fined for the same offense a month later, from August 1. The fine rate will be VND6- 10 million for cars and VND800,000-1.2 million for motorbikes, according to Decree 71/ND-CP on administrative penalties for violations in the field of road traffic.  Under Decree 18/2012 by the Government on the Road Maintenance Fund, all automobile and motorbike owners must pay the road maintenance fee from January 1, 2013. This regulation affects about 35 million motorbikes and 1.5 million automobiles that have been registered for use across the country. As of June 29, automobile owners nationwide had paid a total of VND2,800 billion worth of the fee, but about 100,000 owners have yet to pay, said Nguyen Huu Tri, head of the Vietnam  Registry. According to Decree 18, a minimum rate of VND130,000 (US$6.24) per month will be levied on under-10-seat personal cars, while the highest rate, VND1.04 million ($49.9) per month, will be applied to trucks over 27 tons. As for motorbikes, under the circular, users of electric bicycles and motorbikes with 50 - 100 cc engines will pay VND50,000-100,000 per year, while those with engine sizes of over 100 cc will pay VND100,000-150,000 per year. The fees will feed the Road Maintenance Fund, which has two levels and was established under the same Decree. Accordingly, 65 percent of the fees collected from automobiles will be managed by the central fund, while the rest will be kept by local funds.