Transport charges to remain frozen

Transportation companies have not announced any rises in charges to customers nearly a week after a nominal increase in petrol and oil prices.

Taxi companies across the country such as Mai Linh, Hanoi Tourist and Phu Dong confirmed that there would be no change in their charges following the recent oil and petrol increases.

Taxi companies declined to increase charges despite being directly affected by the rise, and despite oil and petrol accounting for 40 per cent of their total operating costs, said Ta Long Hy, chairman of HCM City Taxi Association.

Companies would shoulder the financial burden themselves, he added.

Goods transportation companies also announced charges would remain frozen.

"We're retaining the charges we established in June. We're not intending to increase charges following the petrol and oil price increase," affirmed Nguyen Trung Nam, head of Tin Thanh Express Joint Stock Company Marketing Department.

Luong Hoang Trung, Deputy Chairman of HCM City Goods Transport Association said transportation costs would not increase in the near future as oil and petrol prices had only registered a marginal VND400 increase per litre.

Nguyen Manh Hung, Chairman of the Viet Nam Automobile Transportation Association said "transportation companies prefer to retain their current pricing as there are too many complicated procedures to go through to increase charges."

"Bus companies would have to reprint their tickets and taxi companies would have to register to change their meters," said Hung. The costs of such a change would be prohibitive, he added.

Hung also said that his association had suggested to their members that they should only increase charges when petrol and oil prices had increased by 10 per cent.

"This time, petrol and oil prices only nudged up two per cent. This will increase transportation costs by a nominal one per cent so transport companies can absorb the cost," Hung said.

Earlier this week, domestic petrol and oil retail prices rose by VND410 and VND400 per litre respectively.

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