Aircraft of various airlines at Noi Bai Airport. Reference photo: Huy Hung/Vietnam News Agency
Accordingly, one of the reasons driving up airfares excessively is that the current level of taxes and fees is not insignificant, as airlines have to bear over 20 types of fees, both direct and indirect.
A representative of the Department of Tax, Fee, and Charge Policy Supervision and Management (Ministry of Finance) said that the aforementioned fees are “service prices” for the aviation sector, as stipulated in Circular No. 53/2019/TT-BGTVT dated December 31, 2019 of the Ministry of Transport, which regulates the prices and price brackets for certain aviation industry services provided in airports in Vietnam; they are not fees that go towards the state budget as prescribed in the Law on Fees and Charges.
According to the legal provisions on fees and charges, for Vietnamese flights landing or taking off at domestic airports, only airport and airport operating concession fees are required to be paid, at the rates of VND 165,000 per flight/for flight operation guarantee services and VND 335,000 per flight/for airport business services.
Providing more information on this matter, a representative of the Price Management Department said that under Article 9, Clause 2 of Law No. 66/2006/QH11 on civil aviation and Article 1, Clause 3 of the Law on Civil Aviation of Vietnam No. 61/2014/QH13 dated November 21, 2014, the Ministry of Transport is responsible to the Government for implementing state management in the area of civil aviation; airlines set the prices for domestic air transport services within the price brackets as stipulated and submit price declarations to the Ministry of Transport.
Accordingly, under its authority, the Ministry of Transport issued Circular No. 53 and received price declarations for the area of aviation industry service prices that are subject to the state regulations on price brackets; maximum prices for domestic air passenger transport services are set by the Ministry of Transport…
Regarding air transport service fares, under its authority, the Ministry of Transport issued Circular No. 34/2023/TT-BGTVT dated November 30, 2023 (effective from March 1, 2024) to amend and supplement certain articles of Circular No. 17/2019/TT-BGTVT dated May 3, 2019, which promulgates the price brackets for air transport services on domestic routes…
Thus, the Ministry of Finance affirms that state management of prices and the issuance of regulations on prices for aviation industry services and domestic air passenger transport services are the responsibility of the Ministry of Transport.
