Justice Ministry decrees equal traffic penalties under the law
The Ministry of Justice has “whistled down” a Transportation Ministry draft decree that proposes to double fines on road traffic violators in Hanoi and HCM City.
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Many young people in Hanoi don’t wear helmets when riding motorbikes. |
At the urging of Hanoi and HCM City, the Transporation Ministry has proposed to allow Vietnam’s two largest cities to levy fines for traffic infractions at double the national standard.
According to Dan Tri Online, the Justice Ministry has replied that the Vietnamese Constitution says that all citizens are equal under the law, therefore lawbreakers in general and violators of traffic laws in particular are equal under the traffic law. This principle of equality requires the laws be applied uniformly throughout Vietnam.
According to the Justice Ministry, the traffic fines proposed by the Transportation Ministry for Hanoi and HCM City are inappropriate. The Ministry argues that there are large numbers of poor people in the two cities and many commuters from other provinces, so it is unfair and infeasible to apply the special fines in Hanoi and HCM City.
The Ministry also disagreed with a provision that requires vehicle owners to pay fines for traffic violations committed by cars registered in their name, regardless of whether or not they were driving the vehicle. It argued that the Ordinance on Administrative Fines applies to individuals and organizations that violate the laws and not simply to the owners of vehicles.
Administrative responsibility for violations must be assigned to a particular person, and not to the vehicles that are used to commit the violations, the Ministry said. It asserted that the Transport Ministry’s proposal will be infeasible for vehicles that have been sold several times when the users do not re-register ownership.
Trinh Minh Hien, Chief of the the Ministry of Transportation’s Legal Department, confirms that his Ministry has received the Justice Ministry’s document and it is revising the draft decree before submitting it to the Prime Minister’s Office for approval.
Hien said her ministry will explain further its suggestion of higher fines in Hanoi and HCM City in a separate document.
Both Hanoi and HCM City proposed to raise fines on traffic rule violations as solutions to curb traffic jams. The Ministry of Transportation drafted the new decree on administrative fines on traffic violations based on the two cities’ proposals.
Source:.vietnamnet.vn
