JOINT CIRCULAR

REGULATIONS ON COSTS OF TRAFFIC SAFETY ASSESSMENT FOR ROAD WORKS IN OPERATION

Pursuant to the Law on Road Traffic dated November 13, 2008;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 11/2010/NĐ-CP dated February 24, 2010 regulating management and protection of road traffic infrastructure;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 107/2012/NĐ-CP dated December 20, 2012 defining the functions, tasks, entitlements and organizational structure of the Ministry of Transport;

Pursuant to the Government's Decree No. 215/2013/NĐ-CP dated December 23, 2013 defining the functions, tasks, entitlements and organizational structure of the Ministry of Finance;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 112/2009/NĐ-CP dated December 14, 2009 on management of work investment and construction costs;;

The Minister of Transport and the Minister of Finance promulgates the Circular regulating costs of traffic safety assessment for road works in operation.

Article 1. Governing scope

This Circular regulates establishment and management of traffic safety assessment costs with respect to road works in operation as defined in Clause 2, Article 13 of the Government’s Decree No. 11/2010/NĐ-CP dated February 24, 2010 regulating management and protection of road traffic infrastructure (hereinafter referred to as the Decree No. 11/2010/NĐ-CP).

Article 2. Regulated entities

This Circular applies to agencies, organizations and individuals concerning establishment, management of traffic safety costs with respect to road works in operation.

Article 3. Costs of traffic safety assessment for road works in operation

1. With respect to national road network, costs of traffic safety assessment shall be allocated from Central Road Maintenance Fund.

2. With respect to local road network (provincial roads, urban roads, district roads), the costs of traffic safety assessment shall be allocated from local road maintenance funds and other sources.

3. With respect to road projects in the form BOT contract, BTO contract, the costs of traffic safety assessment shall be calculated in the contract’s financial method. In case the contract is signed before the effective date of this Circular, the costs of road traffic safety assessment shall be allocated from road maintenance costs according to BOT, BTO contracts.

4. With respect to specialized roads, roads that not managed, operated by the State, roads invested and constructed not from state budget capital (hereinafter referred to as specialized roads), the costs of traffic satety assessment shall be incurred relevant organizations, individiuals.

Article 4. Traffic safety assessment costs

1. Costs of traffic safety assessment for road works in operation (hereinafter referred to as “traffic safety assessment costs”) mean all the expenses necessary for completion of road traffic safety assessment tasks as regulated in the Circular No. 39/2011/TT-BTGVT dated May 18, 2011 of the Minister of Transport providing guidance on a number of articles of the Decree No. 11/2010/NĐ-CP.

2. Traffic safety assessment costs

a) Direct costs

- Costs for experts

Costs for experts shall be determined by number, work time and pay of experts, specifically:

Quantity and work time of experts shall be determined by specific quantity of workload for traffic safety assessment, requests for progress and qualification of each expert. In reliance on scale, nature of the works, progress of traffic safety assessment, factors concerning traffic safety assessment, regulations on qualifications of organizations, individuals involved in traffic safety assessment and other applicable regulations, number and work time of each expert shall be determined.

Pay of experts includes pay by various ranks and grades, allowances and other employer contributions according to applicable regulations.

- Costs for materials

Costs of materials are determined in reliance on types and quantity according to applicable regulations on price of materials. Price of materials shall be determined according to local price announcement; In case materials are not included in the local price announcement, the market price provided by functional organizations, prices from manufacturers and suppliers, or prices applied to the tasks of similar standard, quality shall be based on for determination.

- Costs for machinery and equipment

Costs for machinery, equipment shall be determined in reliance on demands for quantity, useful life according to applicable regulations and prices of machine shift, equipment. Prices of machine shift, equipment shall be applied according to price of machine shift, equipment published by competent agencies or according to market price of popular machine shift, equipment.

- Other direct costs: costs for site survey, travels, conferences, seminars and other costs serving traffic safety assessment. Other direct costs shall be determined as follows:

+ Costs for site survey shall be determined according to the number of surveys, vehicles used and other costs necessary as follows:

+ Costs for conferences, seminars, travels determined by requests for traffic safety assessment tasks. Expense level shall be instructed in the Circular No. 97/2010/TT-BTC dated July 06, 2010 of the Minister of Finance regulating costs for business trips, organization of conferences for state agencies and public service providers.

b) Administrative expense

Administrative expense means an expense used for maintaining operation of traffic safety assessment enterprises and other expenses used for serving traffic safety assessment tasks. Administrative expense is determined by a maximum of 55% of the costs for experts;

c) Other expenses

Other expenses include expenses for formation of outlines and estimates and other expenses necessary for serving traffic safety assessment tasks;

d) Pro forma taxable income

Pro forma taxable income shall be determined by 6% of total costs for experts, management and others;

dd) Value-added taxes (VAT)

VAT is determined according to the regulations of the Law on VAT and regulations of the Law on Taxation.

Article 5. Construction of contents and cost estimates of traffic safety assessment

1. Responsibilities for constructing contents and cost estimates of traffic safety assessment as defined as follows:

a) Agencies assigned with the management of national roads (Road Management Department, the Services of Transport and other relevant agencies):

b) The Services of Transport or agencies decentralized on provincial, urban roads;

c) People’s committees of communes with respect to commune roads;

d) The investor or project management enterprises with respect to the roads in operation according to BOT, BTO contracts;

dd) Agencies, organizations, and individuals with respect to specialized roads;

2. In case any agency, organization or individual that is responsible for forming the contents and cost estimates of traffic safety assessment is not qualified, a qualified consultant must be hired as a substitute to do the tasks. Tax for the formation of contents and cost estimate for assessment shall be included in other expenses as prescribed in Point a, Clause 2, Article 4 hereof and be cost-estimated according to applicable regulations.

Article 6. Assessment, approval of contents and cost estimates of traffic safety assessment

1. Contents and cost estimates of traffic safety assessment shall be submitted by agencies or organizations as defined in Clause 1, Article 5 hereof to competent agencies for assessment and approval.

2. Competent authorities regulate as follows:

a) The Ministry of Transport for highways;

b) Directorate for Roads of Vietnam for national roads (except highways);

c) People’s committees of provinces or agencies authorized for urban roads, provincial roads and district roads;

d) Agencies, organizations, and individuals as owners of specialized roads for specialized roads.

3. Results of assessment shall be made into reports on formation of content and cost estimates of traffic safety assessment.

Article 7. Revision of cost estimates of traffic safety assessment

Cost estimates of traffic safety assessment shall be revised in the following cases:

1. Workloads of traffic safety assessment change due to the following reasons:

a) Characteristics of routes, road sections under traffic safety assessment change;

b) Persons having authority to decide investment request to supplement traffic safety assessment tasks.

2. In case expenses as prescribed in Article 4 hereof change under new state policies.

Article 8. Formation and allocation, payment and final settlement of traffic safety assessment costs

Implementation is defined under the Law on State Budget and guiding documents.

Article 9. Implementation

1. The Ministry of Transport, Directorate for Roads of Vietnam and state management agencies on local transport shall be responsible for cooperating with financial agencies at the same level in carrying out regular and unregular inspection of the management, use, payment and final settlement of traffic safety costs for road works in operation at the units assigned the tasks of traffic safety assessment.

2. Expenses for traffic safety assessment that are found inappropriate, not in accordance with this Joint Circular shall be taken back to the state budget; any person who orders such wrong payment shall be liable for paying compensation.

Article 10. Effect

1. This Circular takes effect since February 01, 2015.

2. In case any document excerpted in this Circular is modified, replaced, new documents shall be applied.

3. Difficulties that arise during the implementation of this Circular should be reported to the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Finance for early handling./.