'Fixed' starting price for car license plate auction is 40 million VND

This Resolution regulates the pilot auction of automobile license plates, including: automobile license plates put up for auction, organization of asset auction; starting price, deposit, bid step, money collected from auction; form, method, order, and procedures of auction; auction in case there is only one person registering to participate in the auction, one person participating in the auction, one person bidding; rights and obligations of the person winning the auction of automobile license plates.

The license plates of automobiles put up for auction are license plates with white background and black letters and numbers, except for license plates issued to automobiles of military enterprises doing business, automobiles of projects, economic organizations in joint ventures with foreign countries, automobiles of foreign organizations and enterprises, diplomatic representative agencies, consular representative agencies, representative agencies of international organizations and foreigners working in foreign and international agencies and organizations operating in Vietnam.

National Assembly delegates vote to pass the Resolution on piloting the auction of car license plates.

The Ministry of Public Security and the property auction organization are responsible for publicly announcing the license plates of unregistered cars and those expected to be newly issued on the national electronic information portal on property auctions, the electronic information portal of the Ministry of Public Security, the electronic information page of the Traffic Police Department, and the online electronic information page of the property auction organization;

Organizations and individuals are allowed to choose car license plates of provinces and centrally-run cities to register to participate in the auction.

License plates of cars not selected for auction, license plates of cars that are not successfully auctioned will be immediately transferred to the vehicle registration and management system for registration according to regulations.

The resolution also stated that the starting price of a car license plate to be auctioned is 40 million VND. The deposit is equal to the starting price of a car license plate to be auctioned and the step price is 5 million VND.

The proceeds from the auction of car license plates after deducting the costs of organizing the auction shall be paid into the central budget according to the provisions of the law on the state budget. The Government shall specify the management and use of the proceeds from the auction of car license plates.

The auction format is defined as online auction.

The license plate of the auctioned car cannot be transferred or inherited.

Notably, when the registration period expires and only one person registers to participate in the auction, or there are many people registering to participate in the auction but only one person participates in the auction, or there are many people participating in the auction but only one person bids at least equal to the starting price of a car license plate put up for auction, the car license plate put up for auction will be transferred to that person.

The person who wins the car license plate auction will be issued a document confirming the winning car license plate after paying the full auction amount; and will be able to register the winning car license plate with the car he/she owns.

The auction winner also has the right to retain the license plate in case the car is lost, damaged and unusable, or transferred, exchanged, or gifted to register another car owned by him/her within 12 months from the time the car is lost, damaged and unusable, or the ownership is transferred.

Within 12 months from the date of the document confirming the license plate of the auctioned car, if the auction winner dies but has not completed the registration procedure, the license plate of the above car will be transferred to the vehicle registration and management system, and the heir according to the provisions of the law on inheritance will receive the amount the auction winner paid after deducting the auction organization costs.

Regarding obligations, the regulation clearly states that the auction winner is not allowed to transfer, exchange, give away, or inherit the license plate of the auction-winning car, except in the case of transferring, exchanging, giving away, or inheriting the car with the auction-winning license plate.

This Resolution takes effect from July 1, 2023 and will be implemented for 3 years./.