Three-wheeled modified vehicles remain under operation across streets, despite the government ban on all homemade vehicles nationwide. Most of the owners of the homemade three or four-wheeled vehicles are poor immigrants. However, the subsidy for three-wheeled modified vehicle drivers is only for local people. At the meantime, immigrants are the outsiders.

Vo Van Duc, vice director of the Binh Duong Bank for Social Policy, said implementing preferential loan subsidy for three-wheeled modified vehicle drivers affected by the State ban on all homemade vehicles, whether motorized or not, including delivery pedicabs, dilapidated trucks and passenger automobiles that are not roadworthy, as well as unregistered and self-modified three- and four-wheel motor vehicles are to be confiscated and sold as scrap if found on Vietnamese streets, based on the assessment work under the local People’s Committee’s Decision No 3915/QD-UBND, 824 poor and sub-poor households have qualified to enjoy preferential loans. There are 727 applicants for the subsidy, but 623 of whom are not qualify for the support. The bank has so far disbursed VND2.1bil for the subsidy.

According to Duc, applicants having home registration books granted by the province will enjoy the subsidy, so poor immigrants are not qualified to enjoy the subsidy. Most of immigrant families in the province depend on the pedicabs for survival.

The entire province has about 5,000 vehicles affected by the ban, most of them are of immigrant laborers. Di An district has only 12 cases qualifying for the subsidy whilst Tan Uyen district has 6 only.

Many drivers receiving supportive money still keep using the vehicles. They explain that they have not yet sought new vocations. Besides, functional agencies lack seriousness in dealing with violation cases.    

Reported by M.Duy – Translated by A.C