Not ready for the EURO 2 standard

03/06/2007 12:00 - 1049 Views

According to the regulations, from July 1st 2007 all vehicles must be applied the EURO 2 standard of exhaust fumes. Yet, almost everything is not ready for this implementation.

The Decision No. 249/2005/QÐ-TTg of the Government on the roadmap of implementing the exhaust fumes standard for vehicles was promulgated about 2 years ago (on October 10th 2005), in which from July 1st 2007 all new vehicles must meet the EURO 2 standard of exhaust fumes. For vehicles whose types are certified for their technical safety and environment preservation before July 1st 2007 but have not been produced or assembled, the time to apply this standard is delayed one more year, until July 1st 2008.

For cars which are currently in use in four big cities Hanoi, Hai Phong, Da Nang and Can Tho must be compulsorily applied the EURO 2 standard from July 1st 2007, and which are in other provinces will be done in next year, from July 1st 2008. Producing, assembling and importing autos and motors enterprises said that they have prepared for this and ready to apply this standard on July 1st 2007 whereas things are in a “mess” with management agencies, and gasoline and diesel importing enterprises.

Although it is now June 2007, instruction documents for implementing the EURO 2 standard drafted by Vietnam Registration Administration have not been issued yet. Mr. Do Huu Duc, Deputy Head of Vietnam Registration Administration revealed that the instruction documents have been drafted but it has not been issued yet because of arguments arising. It is until the mid of this June the instruction will be issued.

Mr. Duc said that for domestic producing and assembling autos, the standard of exhaust fumes will be checked by Registration Agencies before selling to the public. For imported ones, the check is based on certificate of quality issued by manufacturers. The certificate of exhaust fumes standard must be added into the profile of imported vehicles. However, only products originated from countries where the standard of exhaust fumes is higher of equal Vietnam’s are accepted.

To implement the EURO 2 standard of exhaust fumes, the Government has assigned Ministry of Transport and Communication to build a vehicle exhaust fumes test center. Total invested capital into this center is about VND 280 billions. The center is located in Thanh Tri District. After 2 years of preparation, however, only procedures are finished. The project has not been started and it is certain that at the time of July 1st 2007, vehicles’ exhaust fumes tests will not been taken place there.

As the time of applying the EURO 2 standard comes, the questions of how and where we can test exhaust fumes is not detailed answered by Vietnam Registration Administration. When answering the question whether our existing testing system can check EURO 2, one official revealed that we are now checking at “estimated” level instead of absolute accuracy. Thus when applying higher standards of exhaust fumes like EURO 2, EURO 3 the results are incorrect.

In preparation of implementing the EURO 2 standard of exhaust fumes, from March 2006, the Prime Minister issued the Decision No. 50/2006/QÐ-TTg regulating that the quality of gasoline and diesel is controlled by the State. According to this decision, quality of imported gasoline and diesel has to meet Vietnamese standards (TCVN 6776-2005 for gasoline and TCVN 5689-2006 for diesel) and the decision comes into effect from January 1st 2007.

Gasoline and diesel importing enterprises say that it is not easy to find out gasoline sources that meet the requirements of Vietnam. Vietnam Petrolimex says from the forth quarter of 2006 it has sent its offers to several big suppliers. Among 53 offered firms, there are only 12 firms officially agreed to supply gasoline and diesel under the new standard. However, the supplying capacity of these 12 firms is not identical and it is hard to meet all requirements of TCVN 677-2005. There are few firms qualified but their supplied quantity is insignificant.

Mentioning these above reasons, Petrolimex proposed to postpone till July 1st 2007 to apply the standard TCVN2005 of gasoline and diesel. This proposal is approved by the Government. It would have implemented the standard of gasoline and diesel at least 6 months before applying the EURO 2 standard. The time is running to July 1st 2007, Ministry of Trade once again sends proposal to the Government to postpone the implementation of some in the Vietnamese standards of gasoline and diesel because of unqualified infrastructure and technique of enterprises. According to regulations, enterprises must import 2 kinds of diesel with 0.25% and 0.05% sulfur content. Now it is difficult to contain 2 kinds of diesel in containers at the same time. This is not to mention to regulation to have specific petrol pump for each kind of gasoline and diesel, which will push up enormous cost, make it hard to control the market and anti-fraud in this sector. Ministry of Trade has proposed to the Government to keep applying Vietnamese standards of gasoline and diesel from July 1st 2007; however, the Government should set an appropriate roadmap with specific targets and temporary maintain these ones to ensure sustainable supplying sources.

According to Mr. Cao Xuan Vinh, Manager of Environment Department of Vietnam Registration Administration, current gasoline and diesel products selling in the market are not meet the EURO 2 standard. Particularly, sulfur index in gasoline and diesel in Vietnam is three to five times higher than regulations. If gasoline and diesel is not qualified, the implementation of the EURO 2 standard of vehicles is meaningless.

Tran Thuy

04/06/2007

Source: vietnamnet
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