Illustrative photo. (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - Policein the capital city have said they are considering electronic (and automatic)charging of traffic fines to offenders’ bank accounts. Police officers aremostly supportive of the idea, while others, including car drivers andauthority figures, are not so impressed, urging careful study.
The novel idea was recently put forward byBrigadier Dao Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of the Hanoi municipal Department ofPublic Security, in a conference held last weekend announcing the transportsector’s activity plan for 2017.
Hai requested the Ministry of Public Security(MoPS) to work on the proposal to submit to the Government for consideration.
According to this proposal, car owners would berequired to open a bank account and a certain amount of money is to bedeposited in that account. Should violations occur, by identifying car ownersvia images captured by traffic cameras, fines will be automatically debitedfrom the offenders’ accounts.
Part of the reason for this proposal is, as Haisaid, the police still face a number of difficulties in handling trafficviolations, especially in cases of offenders whose car ownership certificateswere not registered under their names.
Those who do not have proper ownershipcertificates for their vehicles will be forced to do so. Thus, law-enforcementand authorities will have an easier time managing cars.
More importantly, Hai is convinced that when anamount of money is reserved in bank accounts specifically for paying fines andthe fines are automatically deducted; car owners will have no choice but to paymore attention and obey traffic laws, be it parking in designated zones orwearing seatbelts, or speeding. Two birds with one stone, Hai added.
Fully backing the measure, Colonel Nguyen Van Quy,former handler of traffic violations at the Traffic Police Unit No 1, said thiswill enhance drivers’ awareness to better follow the rules.
Better yet, Quy added that if the offendershappen to be working in State agencies, the automatic fine collection willprevent the higher-ups from being able to pull strings or exert their influenceon police officers to get out of trouble.
This is something the public might appreciate,when all drivers are treated fairly, Major Nguyen Manh Hung, deputy head of theRoad and Railway Traffic Police under the Hanoi Police, said in approval of themeasure.
“Besides, the offender doesn’t have to wastetime [going to the State Treasury] to pay their fines,” Hung stressed.
Currently, traffic offenders pay on-the-spotfines in cash to police officers, which is more convenient for people, but notfor the police officers.
Dr. Luong Thanh Cuong, head of the Faculty ofState and Law Studies, from the National Academy of Public Administration, saidallowing offenders to pay fines via bank accounts would free up traffic policeofficers from redundant tasks in order to focus on their primary role – to directtraffic and ensure traffic safety.
“Traffic police officers have to carry with themall kinds of traffic ticket receipts. At the end of the working day or the dayafter, they have to bring the collected money to the State treasury. All theefforts devoted to calculating, counting, and keeping the fine money, arereally unnecessary and distracting them from what they are supposed to do.”
A more subtle advantage, Cuong added, is thatpayment via banks would help to end the unbecoming sight of arguing, ‘dealing’and exchanging money between traffic police officers and traffic offenders onthe streets.
Drivers may appreciate the fairer treatment as aresult of automatic fine collection.
However, car drivers still have many concernsregarding the proposal.
According to Nguyen Xuan Thong, 31, in Thanh XuanDistrict of Hanoi, this is a very novel idea, and he wanted to know if the twomethods, fine payment via bank accounts and by cash can be acceptedsimultaneously, or the former will be preferred.
Thong is also concerned with exactly how themethod will be implemented. Will those who commit traffic infringements sufferdeductions immediately after being identified by traffic cameras, or will theagency handling traffic violations send offenders a notice, and only when thenotice is accepted by the offender will their bank account be charged?
Bui Danh Lien, Chairman of the Hanoi Transport Association,said even though he was in favour of setting up a bank account for easier finecollection, valuing the fairness and transparency it helps to create, requiringcar owners to set up a bank account just to pay fines isunreasonable.
According to Lien, the trouble is Vietnamesepeople still prefer dealing in cash rather than by debit or credit cards.
Another thing that might be problematic, hesaid, is that money deposited in the new bank account must be equal or higherthan the highest penalty – which hovers somewhere around 20 million VND (890USD) as per Decree No 46, effective from August last year. This amount mightnot be much of a problem for individual car owners, but for an enterprise withhundreds of cars, it would be a significant financial burden.
Major General Tran The Quan, Deputy Chief of theMoPS’s Legal and Judicial Administrative Reforms Department, while supportingthe proposed measure, said many potential issues must be resolved prior toimplementation. For example, will this measure be extended to motorbikes?Investment into modern traffic camera systems that will produce convincingevidence of violations will certainly be a considerable sum. The workingpartnership between police authorities and the banks also needs to be figuredout.
Quan also said a detailed roadmap must bereleased for feedback if the authorities decide to proceed with the idea.
Back in November 2015, in a bid to ease trafficcongestion in Hanoi and HCM City, the then Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucordered the MoPS, Ministry of Finance and the State Bank of Vietnam toimmediately work on a plan to implement collecting fines via bank accounts.
It is not the first time that this idea has beenfloated by the city’s police heads, but the plan remains in the proposal phase.-VNA
The novel idea was recently put forward byBrigadier Dao Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of the Hanoi municipal Department ofPublic Security, in a conference held last weekend announcing the transportsector’s activity plan for 2017.
Hai requested the Ministry of Public Security(MoPS) to work on the proposal to submit to the Government for consideration.
According to this proposal, car owners would berequired to open a bank account and a certain amount of money is to bedeposited in that account. Should violations occur, by identifying car ownersvia images captured by traffic cameras, fines will be automatically debitedfrom the offenders’ accounts.
Part of the reason for this proposal is, as Haisaid, the police still face a number of difficulties in handling trafficviolations, especially in cases of offenders whose car ownership certificateswere not registered under their names.
Those who do not have proper ownershipcertificates for their vehicles will be forced to do so. Thus, law-enforcementand authorities will have an easier time managing cars.
More importantly, Hai is convinced that when anamount of money is reserved in bank accounts specifically for paying fines andthe fines are automatically deducted; car owners will have no choice but to paymore attention and obey traffic laws, be it parking in designated zones orwearing seatbelts, or speeding. Two birds with one stone, Hai added.
Fully backing the measure, Colonel Nguyen Van Quy,former handler of traffic violations at the Traffic Police Unit No 1, said thiswill enhance drivers’ awareness to better follow the rules.
Better yet, Quy added that if the offendershappen to be working in State agencies, the automatic fine collection willprevent the higher-ups from being able to pull strings or exert their influenceon police officers to get out of trouble.
This is something the public might appreciate,when all drivers are treated fairly, Major Nguyen Manh Hung, deputy head of theRoad and Railway Traffic Police under the Hanoi Police, said in approval of themeasure.
“Besides, the offender doesn’t have to wastetime [going to the State Treasury] to pay their fines,” Hung stressed.
Currently, traffic offenders pay on-the-spotfines in cash to police officers, which is more convenient for people, but notfor the police officers.
Dr. Luong Thanh Cuong, head of the Faculty ofState and Law Studies, from the National Academy of Public Administration, saidallowing offenders to pay fines via bank accounts would free up traffic policeofficers from redundant tasks in order to focus on their primary role – to directtraffic and ensure traffic safety.
“Traffic police officers have to carry with themall kinds of traffic ticket receipts. At the end of the working day or the dayafter, they have to bring the collected money to the State treasury. All theefforts devoted to calculating, counting, and keeping the fine money, arereally unnecessary and distracting them from what they are supposed to do.”
A more subtle advantage, Cuong added, is thatpayment via banks would help to end the unbecoming sight of arguing, ‘dealing’and exchanging money between traffic police officers and traffic offenders onthe streets.
Drivers may appreciate the fairer treatment as aresult of automatic fine collection.
However, car drivers still have many concernsregarding the proposal.
According to Nguyen Xuan Thong, 31, in Thanh XuanDistrict of Hanoi, this is a very novel idea, and he wanted to know if the twomethods, fine payment via bank accounts and by cash can be acceptedsimultaneously, or the former will be preferred.
Thong is also concerned with exactly how themethod will be implemented. Will those who commit traffic infringements sufferdeductions immediately after being identified by traffic cameras, or will theagency handling traffic violations send offenders a notice, and only when thenotice is accepted by the offender will their bank account be charged?
Bui Danh Lien, Chairman of the Hanoi Transport Association,said even though he was in favour of setting up a bank account for easier finecollection, valuing the fairness and transparency it helps to create, requiringcar owners to set up a bank account just to pay fines isunreasonable.
According to Lien, the trouble is Vietnamesepeople still prefer dealing in cash rather than by debit or credit cards.
Another thing that might be problematic, hesaid, is that money deposited in the new bank account must be equal or higherthan the highest penalty – which hovers somewhere around 20 million VND (890USD) as per Decree No 46, effective from August last year. This amount mightnot be much of a problem for individual car owners, but for an enterprise withhundreds of cars, it would be a significant financial burden.
Major General Tran The Quan, Deputy Chief of theMoPS’s Legal and Judicial Administrative Reforms Department, while supportingthe proposed measure, said many potential issues must be resolved prior toimplementation. For example, will this measure be extended to motorbikes?Investment into modern traffic camera systems that will produce convincingevidence of violations will certainly be a considerable sum. The workingpartnership between police authorities and the banks also needs to be figuredout.
Quan also said a detailed roadmap must bereleased for feedback if the authorities decide to proceed with the idea.
Back in November 2015, in a bid to ease trafficcongestion in Hanoi and HCM City, the then Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucordered the MoPS, Ministry of Finance and the State Bank of Vietnam toimmediately work on a plan to implement collecting fines via bank accounts.
It is not the first time that this idea has beenfloated by the city’s police heads, but the plan remains in the proposal phase.-VNA
VNA
