Ministry of Transport proposes the Government to allocate 10,340 billion to buy back 8 BOT projects

May 15, 2023 15:49

The Ministry of Transport proposed to the Government solutions to handle difficulties in 8 BOT transport infrastructure projects managed by the ministry.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Transport (MOT) proposed that the Government allocate VND10,340 billion to buy back 5 BOT projects and buy part of 3 projects.

The 5 projects proposed by the Ministry of Transport to be bought back include: BOT Binh Loi railway bridge and renovation of Saigon river channel with 571 billion VND; BOT western belt of Thanh Hoa city with 892 billion VND; BOT upgrading and renovation of National Highway 91, Can Tho city with 1,754 billion VND; BOT Thai Nguyen - Cho Moi and renovation and upgrade of National Highway 3 estimated at 2,850 billion VND; BOT upgrading and expansion of Ho Chi Minh road through Dak Lak with 745 billion VND.

These projects will remove toll stations after the State allocates budget to buy them back.

Viet Tri Bridge Toll Station

3 projects are considered to continue the contract and extend the payback period, the State supports not exceeding 49% of the total investment capital of the project, including: Thai Ha Bridge BOT project (Thai Binh, Ha Nam) is proposed to arrange 717 billion VND of budget capital, payback period is extended to 35 years, the investor commits to reduce 50% of profit rate.

Viet Tri - Ba Vi Bridge BOT project, expected to add 533 billion VND, extending the capital recovery period by 22 years; Deo Ca Road Tunnel BOT project, expected to add 2,280 billion VND, extending the toll collection period by about 28 years.

With a capital of about 10,340 billion VND to handle 8 projects, the Ministry of Transport proposed that the Government assign the Ministry of Planning and Investment to preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Transport to balance appropriate capital sources and report to the Government for approval.

According to the document, these are 8 BOT projects that have been completed and put into operation but have not yet collected fees or cannot be collected due to lack of security and order, or financial plans being disrupted. Some projects have collected fees but actual revenue only reached 30% of the contract.

Faced with this reality, the Ministry of Transport has negotiated with investors on a plan to amend the contract in the direction of: Eliminating toll stations or extending collection time, reducing investors' profits.

After negotiation, there were 3 feasible projects to continue implementing the contract; the remaining 5 projects with additional State capital were still not feasible, so the State needed to buy them back to terminate the contract.

Previously, in mid-2022, the Ministry of Transport submitted to the Government solutions to handle shortcomings in 8 BOT projects after reaching an agreement with investors.

According to Vietnamnet