Nearly 30 years of ‘forward and backward’ of the car license plate auction project

In 1993, the Ministry of Public Security implemented a plan to “grant optional license plates”, also known as beautiful license plate auctions. Hai Phong police were selected to pilot registration, issue license plates, and collect fees in an optional form. After two months of implementation, 94 cases have self-selected license plates out of a total of 198 registered vehicles.

The Government then assigned the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Finance to issue a circular stipulating the collection, management and use of fees for registration of optional license plates. However, this was deadlocked because the Law on Property Auction did not include license plates in the list of auctioned assets, leaving the relevant ministries without a legal basis for implementation. This plan cannot be implemented.

More than 10 years later, Nghe An and Binh Thuan “crossed the fence” to organize an auction of number plates, collecting billions of dong to support the poor. In which, many number plates are worth up to 900 million VND. In a short time, this activity was requested by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Public Security to stop because of legal procedures.

In 2008, the Traffic Police Department continued to propose the auction of number plates, the Prime Minister approved the policy and assigned the ministries to study and deploy. The Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Finance developed a draft joint circular guiding but then “broken down” due to many problems.

Nine years later, the Ministry of Public Security once again met with the Ministry of Finance and Justice to launch the auction project. Many opinions at that time agreed, saying that this met the needs of the people, increased the state budget; at the same time increase transparency and prevent negativity in this field.

However, a major problem that has persisted since the last decade has yet to be resolved is that the Road Traffic Law and its guiding documents do not consider license plates as property, but these are identified as “documents”. of a state agency”. Moreover, the law also “prohibits the purchase and sale of license plates”.

“Growing up” three cars in 12 years, Pham Duy Hoang, a resident of Hanoi, just wants to once choose a license plate according to his preferences by “spending legal money”, not “going to the back door”. . The first car bought before 2012, Mr. Hoang clicked the license plate to follow the order number. After two cars, he dialed the plate by dialing a random number on the system.

When he sold the car to a buyer outside the province, the revoked number plates were returned to the registration system and not issued to another vehicle.

After many years of “persistence” with number plate auctions, on April 22, the Ministry of Public Security completed the draft Resolution of the National Assembly on piloting granting the right to choose to use car number plates through auction.

The number plate to be auctioned is in an unregistered number plate warehouse that the police expect to issue every month, quarter, 6 months or a year. This does not apply to license plates issued to vehicles purchased from the State budget, vehicles of the Army used for defense purposes, vehicles of military enterprises doing business, vehicles of foreign business organizations, diplomatic missions…

The determination of the starting price is divided into 2 zones, with different prices. Region 1 (Hanoi and HCMC): Starting price = 2 times the highest applicable local registration fee. Region 2 (remaining localities): Starting price = 10 times the highest applicable local registration fee.

The big difference in the draft is that when transferring a car, the auction winner is entitled to keep the number plate to register for another car owned, also known as the “passenger number plate”. When they change their permanent residence address to another province or city directly under the central government, they do not have to return the winning number plate at the auction.

In the process of developing the project, the Traffic Police Department of the Ministry of Public Security once proposed a plan, the auction winner of the license plate number could use, transfer, inherit, donate or mortgage the winning number plate at the auction.

However, this is only “half a reality” when the draft allows car owners, if they sell their vehicles, to still keep the winning number plates at auction to register for other cars. Whether it is allowed to buy, sell, transfer, give as a gift, the draft has not been “mentioned”.

From an expert perspective, Mr. Nguyen Van Quyen, Chairman of the Vietnam Automobile Transport Association, supports the number plate auction to be put into operation “as soon as possible” to meet the needs of the people and increase the budget. Government.

According to him, a car only has a “life expectancy” of about 20 years, if the winning number plate at the auction is considered a personal property so that the owner can sell, give, donate, inherit, … auction will be raised to a new level and attract more participants, more money collected. “Moreover, a person who spends billions of dong to buy a beautiful number plate should give them the right to decide for themselves,” said Quyen.

He proposed, if the auction is implemented, it is necessary to divide the number plate into two cases for management. Firstly, the individual who uses the winning plate at the auction will be entitled to own it for life, not permanently attached to a vehicle. Second, the license plate issued in the form of “randomly pressed” is still only attached to a fixed vehicle as at present to serve state management.

Lawyer Quach Thanh Luc said that currently, license plates are a tool for State agencies to manage vehicles, but are not considered property of vehicle owners. Therefore, even if the auction is won, the relevant legal documents do not stipulate that the license plate is the property of an individual, so they are still not entitled to sell, donate or inherit.

Like Mr. Quyen, lawyer Luc also believes that the auction of license plates will bring great revenue to the State budget. However, the regulator needs to do specific research to bring greater benefits to buyers, giving them “the right to dispose”.

According to the draft, the Ministry of Public Security will assign the provincial police to sign a contract to hire an asset auction organization with a website to organize an online auction. The agency organizing the auction is the Public Security of the province or city directly under the Central Government. All organizations, businesses and individuals are entitled to participate in the auction of number plates of the locality where they are headquartered or where they are permanently registered.

It is expected that the proceeds from the license plate auction, after deducting the costs of organizing the auction as prescribed, will divide the revenue at the rate of 70% to be paid to the central budget, 30% to the central budget. local books.

Pham Du