Pilot auction of license plates in 5 major cities

After many missed appointments regarding the auction of car license plates, on the first working day of the new year of Mau Tuat 2018, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc requested the Ministry of Public Security to urgently submit to the Government an auction plan.license platebefore March 15.

License plates with the last two numbers like 68, 86 (prosperity, prosperity) are considered good. Photo: Internet

Generate budget revenue

Colonel Tran Son - former Deputy Head of the Department of Law Guidance, Investigation and Handling of Traffic Accidents under the Traffic Police Department (Ministry of Public Security) - said that the policy of auctioning license plates has been raised many times and piloted in Nghe An and Hai Phong since 2008. The pilot auction shows that the amount of money collected for the budget is very large. For example, a "four of a kind" 9 license plate in Nghe An was once sold for 700 million VND.

However, due to legal procedures, after a short pilot period, the vehicle license plate auction had to stop. In early March 2017, the Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Public Security to coordinate with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice to study and develop a vehicle license plate auction project. Recently, following the Prime Minister's direction, the Ministry of Public Security is urgently completing the project to submit to the Government for consideration next March.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, the implementation of the vehicle license plate auction project is a correct policy and must be resolutely implemented. Currently, vehicle registration and license plate issuance are carried out by randomly dialing numbers on the vehicle registration and management system. Vehicle registration data is managed uniformly and centrally at the Ministry of Public Security, connected to vehicle registration points of the police in provinces and cities.

Although the license plate numbers are randomly selected by computer, the system is still controlled by humans, so it is inevitable that people will suspect something is wrong. "Therefore, for beautiful license plates, we should conduct an auction to be public and transparent," said Colonel Tran Son.

According to Mr. Son, the auction of license plates contributes to increasing revenue for the state budget. This revenue can be used for charity, building public works...

Avoid speculation and profiteering

When it comes to auctioning license plates, people immediately think of beautiful license plates. However, current laws have not defined what a "beautiful license plate" is. Raising this concern, Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai, Deputy Director of the Department of Judicial Assistance - Ministry of Justice, suggested in the draft project that the concept of beautiful license plates should be clarified.

Colonel Tran Son believes that beautiful license plates are defined in a variety of ways, depending on the majority's perception and individual preferences. The biggest problem here is the legal regulations related to license plate ownership. Currently, license plates are only considered a vehicle management tool, so it is necessary to change the related regulations to consider beautiful license plates as assets.

Colonel Son believes that in the case of considering a license plate as property, three rights must be guaranteed: the right to possess, the right to use and the right to dispose. This reality raises many issues regarding whether the owner can give away or transfer the license plate after a successful auction.

On the side of the Ministry of Justice, Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai also said that many people have asked the question: Are license plates assets or management tools of the state? According to Ms. Mai, the Ministry of Justice is coordinating with the Ministry of Public Security to remove legal obstacles, moving towards perfecting the mechanism for auctioning license plates.

Regarding concerns about people's ownership rights, when they have purchased a license plate through auction, do they have the right to decide whether to buy and sell it or not, lawyer Truong Quoc Hoe, Hanoi Bar Association, said that license plates are not only assets but also a tool for state management. Therefore, the legal basis for auctioning license plates must be very strict to avoid speculation and roundabout transfers for profit.

Faced with concerns that the license plate after a successful auction will be given away or transferred, causing difficulties in management, an officer of the Traffic Police Department of Hanoi City Police proposed that there should be a mechanism to determine that the license plate is an asset but the vehicle owner only has the right to use it and must comply with the vehicle management principles prescribed by law. Accordingly, each license plate is only attached to one vehicle (with chassis number and engine number). When the vehicle owner wants to transfer the license plate, he will have to complete the transfer procedure along with the vehicle according to regulations.

Pilot in 5 cities

It is expected that after being submitted and approved by the Government, the Ministry of Public Security will pilot the project in 5 major cities including: Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hai Phong and Can Tho. In addition, if any province or city requests and meets the conditions, it will also pilot. The auction will take place publicly and online. After a period of time, the Ministry of Public Security will coordinate with relevant ministries and branches to evaluate and perfect the mechanism, and report to the Government for implementation nationwide.