Fee reductions offer little benefit to maritime firms
The Vietnam Maritime Administration (VMA) has sent a report to the Ministry of Transport (MoT), assessing the possible impact of reduced fees on Vietnamese maritime firms amid mounting fuel prices.
The Lach Huyen International Port in Hai Phong city. The MoT has asked VMA to consider reducing maritime fees to help firms cover higher fuel costs. (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The Vietnam Maritime Administration (VMA) has sent a reportto the Ministry of Transport (MoT), assessing the possible impact of reducedfees on Vietnamese maritime firms amid mounting fuel prices.
Thereport asserted that adjustments in fees for international transport would havea negligible impact on Vietnamese firms since freight transport betweenVietnamese ports and international ports is undertaken predominately by foreignshipping lines.
Additionally,maritime fees account for just 7-9 percent of total costs incurred by a vesselengaging in international transport and 3-5 percent in domestic transportation.That means fees reduction is not much of a solution to the problem of mountingpetrol bills.
“Fuelcosts, wages and insurance premiums take up the lion's share in maritime firms’total costs. Accordingly, fees reduction would only improve their costsmarginally, not enough to offset the rise in fuel prices,” the report said.
ThePort Authority shows that Vietnamese ports collected 16.9 billion VND (727,000USD) of fees from domestic transport in 2021. On average, every vesselpaid around 37,000 VND each time it entered and left a port.
Suchan amount is so meagre that even if VMA removes the fees, it will makeno big difference to maritime firms' total costs. The fees are notsupposed to be reduced or removed to offset fuel costs becauseof their nature.
"Thefees are the amounts of money firms have to pay for the public servicesprovided by State agencies. Undoubtedly, it is against their nature to reduceor remove the fees to cover other irrelevant costs," the report added.
Duringthe pandemic, VMA advised MoT to issue the Circular 74 to reduce feesapplicable to maritime firms to lift them out of financial hardship. Thecircular was much appreciated by the firms at the time.
Asfuel prices have been increasing steadily recently, Deputy Minister ofTransport Le Dinh Tho has asked VMA to consider reducing maritime fees again tohelp firms cover higher fuel costs.
Thistime, VMA believed that the policy will not do much good for firms asit did in the past./.
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The Lach Huyen International Port in Hai Phong city. The MoT has asked VMA to consider reducing maritime fees to help firms cover higher fuel costs. (Photo: VNA) 
