The Vietmam Auto Transport Association is calling on the Government to prohibit police officers from issuing on-the-spot fines for traffic violations in a bid to curb corruption.

Instead, the association said motorists should be allowed to pay fines with stamps or vouchers bought from post offices.

Nguyen Manh Hung, VATA's chairman, told Vietmam News that the present system invited corruption.

Traffic police who pull over motorists for breaking road rules are empowered to confiscate driving licences and seize the vehicles.

Drivers have 10 days to pay the fine at the local State Treasury office before collecting their vehicle from the police.

"This procedure takes a lot of time and is expensive for those drivers who live far away from where the traffic violation took place," he said.

VATA said the stamps should have a face value of 50,000 VND (2.3 USD), 100,000 VND (4.6 USD) and 500,000 VND (23 USD) and be sold at post offices.

"Traffic police officers would not then be required to confiscate drivers' documents and motorists would not have to go to the local State treasury branch to pay the fine," he said, adding that only for serious offences would police officers impound vehicles.

The value of the vouchers would be handed directly to the Ministry of Finance, he said.

Hung added that this procedure would deter motorists from trying to bribe police officers to escape punishment.

Tran Son Ha, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Public Security and Railway Traffictraffic Police Department, agreed that administrative procedures for minor violations were time consuming and costly.

Nguyen Van Thuan, Head of the Ministry of Transport's Traffic Safety Department, said he thought motorists should be allowed to pay fines through their bank accounts./.