The Ministry of Transport has requested all transport companies to lower their charges within five days following a fall in petrol prices.

The ministry's move is aimed to deal with transport firms which have been slow to reduce fees despite benefiting from the price fall.

Firms told to cut charges within 5 days of fuel price fall 

Vuong Thu Hang, head of Price Management Division under the Hanoi's Department of Transport, said that to date five local taxi firms and transport companies have not yet cut their fees after the recent petrol price cuts. The firms claimed that they had not raised their prices when petrol costs were higher. Meanwhile, lower fuel prices won’t apparently cover input costs that are the result of the increased minimum wage, social insurance and road maintenance fees.

According to Hang, the Hanoi Department of Finance will continue to inspect local transport firms to ensure that they all apply the price cuts.

Deputy Minister of Transport Le Dinh Tho said that the ministry will also continue urging management agencies to supervise transportation prices. As fuel costs accounted for around 35-40% of transport fees, falling petrol prices should mean reductions in costs.

However, in reality, many transport companies has been too slow to follow the fall, Tho said. He also asked the aviation sector to cut airfares in this context.

Deputy head of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam Pham Van Hao said that Vietnam Airlines and other domestic carriers have already filed their proposals with the department to cut airfares which will soon be announced.

Meanwhile, the deputy minister said that the railway tickets had been cut 15% in 2015.

Some local experts suggested that finance and transport ministries should take more drastic actions against transport firms refusing to pass on cost-savings to customers. Experts have suggested that ministries need to inspect the real profits of the firms, deal with violators and then publish the information about their operations.