The decision to use some pavements for parking areas to prevent the motorbike parking fees from seriously escalating during the run-up to the Tet (Lunar New Year) has been approved by the HCM City People’s Committee.
The Youth Public Service Company will be allowed to use pavements in April 30, Le Van Tam and Tao Dan parks, Nguyen Hue Street , the Labour and Culture Palace , and flower markets as temporary motorbike parking places.
The city’s Transport Department was responsible for the licensing of the new parking areas and ensuring security. The Department of Market Control (DMC), meanwhile, has established a plan to examine and deal with overcharging and unlicensed parking areas.
Since February 15, 2006, the parking fees have been applied at 2,000 VND per motorbike by HCM City ’s Taxation Department. However, a lot of parking areas have established their own prices which are often 50 percent more than the official rate.
“Mien Dong coach station has not announced the increased fees publicly but ticket collectors sometimes overcharge the passengers especially when it is busy,” said Nguyen Ngoc Anh from District 1.
At 84 Thap Muoi parking place, the ticket collector explains: “Tet is coming so it is understandable everything becomes more expensive.”
In January, the DMC cooperated with interdisciplinary inspectors to deal with seven cases of over charging and four parking places that do not advertise their prices, according to a DMC source.
Despite the inspection, it is still very difficult to deal with all violations. One inspector at Ben Nghe District confined: “Car park owners often say that it is the ticket collectors who are to blame, not them. So they sack employees and continue violating the regulations later.”
“In this case, we cannot fine the owner, ” added he.
A lack of parking areas in the city centre is the main reason why people accept overcharging; with some people even prepared to beg for a place to park, according to one local official.
Shopping centres like Ben Thanh Market, Sai Gon Square , Diamond Plaza and Tao Dan Park are the busiest areas with increased demand for parking places during the run-up to Tet. Meanwhile, roads and sidewalks in HCM City have become increasingly congested with illegal parking lots and mobile kiosks. Nearly 1,000 roads and 4 million square metres of sidewalks are occupied by small businesses and vendors or are being used as makeshift parking lots./.
