Two years after the introduction of Government Decree 88, Ho Chi Minh City has not managed to meet its targeted amount of collection fees for environmental hygiene and protection.

Inspectors from Environmental Police, Border Guards and Waterway Traffic Police seized four vessels which exploit illegal sand in the Co Co River of central Da Nang City' Ngu Hanh Son District.

The city collected only VND146 billion ($6.95 million) from waste-dischargers last year, while the requested total collection fee was more than VND277.3 billion ($13.2 million), according to the city's Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

Last week, the department held a seminar in HCM City to review implementation of the decree.

District authorities in the city said the fee collection programme had failed because of the public's resistance to the decree, which assigned local People's Committees to manage fee collection.

Awareness of the need to be environmentally clean was low, especially among non-household groups.

In addition, private environmental hygiene companies have not been properly managed.

These companies reportedly have been paying lower fees than the amount requested to waste collectors, who were not using receipts issued by State-run tax agencies.

Only 15 State-owned environmental hygiene co-operatives in HCM City are in charge of fee collection, according to Huynh Kim Hoan, vice president of the HCM City Co-operatives Union.

In many localities where there is no co-operative of such kind, private environmental hygiene companies take charge of fee collection.

District authorities have asked the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to have stricter management of privately owned waste collectors, especially those not belonging to any group.

They have also proposed further promotional activities to raise awareness of responsibility among waste dischargers, especially non-household companies.

Districts in HCM City have not applied penalties outlined in Circular 06 issued by the Ministry of Finance in 2004, which is a guiding document to implement Government Decree 106, issued a year before, on administrative discipline related to environmental hygiene fee collection.

State-owned waste collectors have asked the city to strictly manage and penalise companies that violate regulations.

Currently, there is a debate on whether to raise waste-collection fees, particularly during a time of higher cost-of-living and rising inflation.

Some city districts, including Binh Tan, Hoc Mon and Thu Duc, have asked to increase the fee while other participants at the seminar disagreed.

The vice director of the city's Urban Environmental Hygiene Company, Nguyen Minh Hoang, said a fee increase was unnecessary, and that it was more important to educate the public about fee payments and manage fee collection more effectively.

A fee increase would only make fee collections more difficult, he added. Participants at the seminar said that the departments of Natural Resources and Environment and Finance should work out flexible fee levels based on companies' production activities.

According to their suggestion, companies discharging less waste would pay lower fees.

They proposed that households located in alleys each pay VND15,000 (75 cents) per month, and those located on main roads VND20,000 (nearly $1) per month.

As part of their plan, localities would spend 5-10% of total collected fees to pay collectors and 20-25% would be contributed to the city's budget.