Vietnam Ministry of Construction Clarifies E-Wallet Fees on Traffic Accounts

Overview

The Ministry of Construction has clarified that e-wallet fees charged when a wallet is linked to a road-traffic account are not account maintenance fees, and that vehicle owners may switch to alternative payment methods. The ministry asked VETC and Viettel Money (ePass) to pause a planned VND 6,600 per month charge for individuals and VND 66,000 per month for organisations. The review names BIDV (BID, HOSE), TPBank, Vietcombank auto-debit, MoMo, Viettel Money and FPT Pay among supported payment channels.

Key Facts

• VETC and Viettel Money (ePass) proposed VND 6,600 per month for individual customers and VND 66,000 per month for organisations using e-wallets linked to traffic accounts.
• The Ministry of Construction directed the Cục Đường bộ Việt Nam to review the fee policy, its basis and its scope of application, and asked the companies to pause implementation.
• VETC’s system supports 5 payment methods: the VETC wallet, TPBank post-paid wallet, BIDV post-paid wallet, TPBank credit card and BIDV credit card.
• VDTC (Công ty CP Giao thông số Việt Nam) supports 11 payment methods, including MoMo, Viettel Money, 8 banks and the FPT Pay payment gateway.
• At the time of review, the VETC wallet, Viettel Money and Vietcombank auto-debit were free of charge; other methods levy fixed or transaction-value-based fees.
• The ministry cited Decree 119/2024/NĐ-CP on electronic road-traffic payment: a traffic account holds vehicle and owner information, not money, and links to only one payment method at a time.
• The report was submitted to Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Phạm Gia Túc.

What Happened

The Ministry of Construction reported to Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Phạm Gia Túc on the results of its inspection of e-wallet fees linked to traffic accounts, according to the ministry’s report. After VETC and Viettel Money announced the planned monthly charges, the ministry instructed the Cục Đường bộ Việt Nam to work with relevant agencies to clarify the fee policy, the basis for the rate and the affected customer groups. The companies were asked to suspend rollout pending a review of options better suited to customer usage frequency, while ensuring disclosure and transparency.

The review found that most payment methods linked to traffic accounts already apply service fees, so the VETC and Viettel Money proposals were broadly consistent with other providers’ policies. The ministry nonetheless drew a legal distinction between the traffic account and the linked payment instrument under Decree 119/2024/NĐ-CP: the traffic account stores vehicle and owner data and holds no money, with funds debited directly from the chosen payment method at the point of transaction. Owners may unlink a payment method without terminating or affecting their traffic account.

Market Context

BID (HOSE) closed at VND 34,250 on 25 October 2026, and FPT (HOSE) closed at VND 57,000. The news touches two listed names indirectly: BIDV appears as a post-paid wallet and credit-card option in VETC’s system, while FPT Pay is one of the payment gateways in VDTC’s 11-method lineup. Neither company is a party to the fee dispute, and the article discloses no revenue or volume contribution from these channels. The regulatory scrutiny lands as Vietnamese authorities tighten oversight of non-cash payment fees in transport infrastructure, a segment tied to the broader push for electronic toll collection.

Strategic Significance

The ruling matters less for the fee itself than for the precedent: the ministry has asserted that traffic accounts are public infrastructure records, not commercial wallets, which limits how toll operators can monetise the link between the two. For BIDV, the practical effect is that its post-paid wallet and credit card remain one of a small set of VETC-supported channels, and the ministry’s confirmation that users can switch freely raises the competitive stakes among banks, e-wallets and gateways for a recurring, high-frequency payment flow. For FPT, participation via the FPT Pay gateway is a distribution foothold in transport payments rather than a near-term earnings driver. The longer-term question is whether fee-setting for linked payment methods migrates toward explicit, disclosed service pricing across all providers.

What to Watch

• Final fee decision from VETC and Viettel Money following the pause and the Cục Đường bộ Việt Nam review.
• Any further ministry guidance or draft amendment to Decree 119/2024/NĐ-CP on traffic-account and payment-method separation.
• Disclosure from BIDV and FPT on transaction volumes or revenue tied to toll-collection payment channels.
• Whether other payment providers adjust their own linked-wallet fee schedules in response.
• Foreign-ownership and sector-flow data for BID and FPT around banking and technology sentiment.