Motorcycle license plate auction: Pilot in big cities before mass application?
In the latest draft of the Law on Road Traffic Safety, the Government has proposed legalizing the auction of vehicle license plates, including expanding the auction to include license plates for commercial vehicles and motorbikes.
Tuoi Tre has recorded opinions and analysis from many sides showing that there is great support for this policy. At the same time, there are additional suggestions to make the auction organization more convenient and effective.
Publicity and transparency in vehicle registration and license plate management
After receiving proposals from National Assembly deputies at the 6th session and conclusions from the National Assembly Standing Committee, the Government directed the Ministry of Public Security to report that the recent auction of car license plates has received great attention, agreement, and support from public opinion.
Putting car license plates up for auction has met the legitimate needs of the people, created publicity and transparency in the registration and management of car license plates and increased resources for the state budget.
The government assessed that the new license plate auction only stopped at personal car license plates and has not been widely applied to other types of car license plates and motorbike license plates, so it has not fully met the wishes of people who want to own license plates according to their preferences.
In reality, according to the Government, legalizing the auction of license plates is "very necessary", expanding the subjects of license plate auctions to include car and motorbike license plates, except for license plates issued to vehicles belonging to public property, vehicles of diplomatic missions, representative offices of international organizations in Vietnam and foreigners working at those agencies.
The expansion of the auction to include motorbike license plates, according to the committee, comes from the demand of a significant number of people with license plates to buy motorbikes of their choice. The standing committee also pointed out that the number of motorbikes registered every month is very large, and if the auction of license plates for these types of vehicles is expanded, it will greatly increase the revenue for the state budget.
Bring benefits to people and the State
Speaking to Tuoi Tre, delegate Ngo Trung Thanh, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly's Law Committee, said that when examining the National Assembly's Resolution 73/2022 on piloting the auction of car license plates, he suggested that all number warehouses should be opened and that auctions should not only be conducted for cars but also for motorbike license plates.
Mr. Thanh also shared that through monitoring and from the Government's report, the amount of money that the auction winners paid and collected for the budget was up to thousands of billions of VND, many license plates were paid at very high prices. This is a good premise for the National Assembly to consider legalizing the auction of license plates and expanding the auction to include motorbike license plates.
Mr. Thanh acknowledged that along with car license plates, with the current number of motorbikes in the country of more than 70 million, expanding the auction of motorbike license plates will help increase the State budget revenue. From this source of revenue, it can be reinvested in socio-economic development, ensuring traffic order and safety...
Besides, it brings great social benefits when meeting people's needs. At the same time, it improves management, ensures transparency, and limits negativity.
Delegate Truong Xuan Cu (Hanoi) expressed his agreement with the addition and legalization of motorcycle license plate auctions. He emphasized the view that anything that comes from reality and brings benefits to the people, society, and country needs to be legalized for the best management. He believes that expanding the auction of motorcycle license plates will meet the needs of the people, ensuring fairness, publicity, and transparency.
"From this reality, if we do not put it into law, management may give rise to negative issues, lack of transparency, contrary to current regulations, thereby causing difficulties in management, failing to meet the legitimate aspirations of the people," Mr. Cu stated.
Delegate Nguyen Minh Tam (Quang Binh) also expressed his agreement with the legalization and expansion of auctions for license plates of all types of vehicles, including motorbikes. Ms. Tam stated that this expansion is necessary and combined with the issuance and management of license plates according to the vehicle owner's identification code to contribute to reforming administrative procedures, reducing the number of documents when registering, and vehicle registration work. Along with that, it meets the goals of digital citizens, digital government according to the Government's Project 06 and effectively exploits and manages public assets.
However, according to Ms. Tam, vehicle license plates are identified as a type of public property like land, water resources, forest resources, mineral resources, telecommunications numbering and other numbering serving state management, Internet resources, radio frequency spectrum...
Therefore, she suggested that the management of license plates should be similar to the management of other types of public assets. In addition, the draft law should only regulate the type of license plates to be auctioned, the starting price, the rights and obligations of the auction winner, vehicle registration, the license plate number of the auctioned vehicle, etc. The order and procedures for auctions should be implemented according to the Law on Property Auctions. This is to ensure consistency and synchronization between specialized laws and the Law on Property Auctions.
Starting price not less than 5 million VND
Regarding the auction of motorbike license plates, the draft law stipulates that the starting price of a motorbike license plate put up for auction is not less than 5 million VND. The deposit is not lower than the starting price of the type of license plate put up for auction. The step price is 10% of the starting price. Based on the socio-economic conditions in each period, the Government will specifically decide the starting price of the type of license plate put up for auction. The auction is conducted online.
The draft law also codifies the provisions on the rights and obligations of the person who wins the vehicle license plate auction. In addition, it adds that the person who wins the vehicle license plate auction has the right to "register the auction license plate attached to the vehicle owned by him/her at the police agency that manages the auction license plate or the place of residence of the individual or the headquarters of the organization that wins the auction".
Meet people's needs
According to Mr. Pham Dinh Vinh, owner of a motorbike shop selling beautiful license plates at 918 Duong Lang (Hanoi), currently the management of license plates is carried out according to personal identification. The buying and selling of motorbikes with beautiful license plates is mainly in the form of authorization contracts. If the ownership is transferred to the owner, the buyer will lose the license plate because the license plate is retained by the previous owner.
Therefore, expanding the auction to include motorbike license plates will meet the needs of people who spend money to have their own name on the vehicle with the license plate they like... and the business people will also benefit more.
Mr. Vinh suggested that if the National Assembly agrees, the authorities should expand the number pool for auction, not only beautiful plates but also those that meet people's needs. Because in reality, this number plate is not beautiful to one person, but beautiful to another. He believes that the most important thing is to ensure technical infrastructure, transmission lines, security factors and information safety.
According to Tuoi Tre, the demand for beautiful motorbike license plates is very high and the amount of money spent to own a beautiful license plate is not cheap. According to Mr. Pham Dinh Vinh, his shop currently has about 60 motorbikes with beautiful license plates, including a Honda SH with license plate 29-N1 999.99 imported for more than 1 billion VND before the regulations on license plate identification. Or in April 2023, a Honda SH with license plate 999.99 from Ho Chi Minh City was advertised for sale for nearly 4 billion VND in Ho Chi Minh City.
Mr. Nguyen Dinh Hai (Hoang Mai, Hanoi) said that in March 2024, he bought a new motorbike for use and wanted to have a license plate according to his year of birth. However, because the license plate is issued randomly, he could not do so. Therefore, when he heard about the proposal to auction motorbike license plates, he strongly supported it and hoped to do it soon so that he could participate. He thought that the starting price of 5 million VND would be suitable and many people could participate.
Mr. Hoang Kieu Hung (owner of a beautiful license plate business in Cau Giay, Hanoi) also predicted that if motorbike license plates were put up for auction, they would definitely be "hotter" than car license plates, because there would be more plates and the prices would be more reasonable.
The number of motorbike license plates is very large, so it is necessary to prepare the infrastructure carefully.
Speaking to Tuoi Tre, Major General Pham Cong Nguyen, Director of the Department of Legislation and Administrative and Judicial Reform (Ministry of Public Security), said that the auction of motorbike license plates is "very necessary and has many positive aspects". Therefore, in the draft Law on Road Traffic Order, in addition to the auction of car license plates, the drafting committee has expanded the content of the auction of motorbike license plates.
"The auction of motorbike license plates also brings great economic benefits, helping to increase the budget and revenue for the State. At the same time, it prevents negativity in the issuance of license plates. Besides, it helps people easily access and get the license plates they like or get license plates associated with their memories, birthdays...," Major General Nguyen emphasized.
Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh, former chairman of the Vietnam Automobile Transport Association, expressed his agreement with the proposal to expand the auction of license plates for motorbikes and commercial cars. The most important thing is that the Ministry of Public Security should summarize and evaluate specifically and thoroughly the results of the auction of car license plates. From there, explain convincingly to the National Assembly the reasons for speeding up the legalization and expanding it to motorbikes. It is even necessary to consider taking public opinion to show how much consensus there is.
Mr. Thanh also analyzed: the number of motorbikes in Vietnam is actually very large, so when the auction is expanded, the number of license plates will be "huge", many times more than the number of car plates recently. Therefore, the Ministry of Public Security needs to anticipate problems and situations that may occur, such as the auction system and software having problems as happened before.
In addition, Mr. Thanh suggested that due to the large number of motorbike license plates, if allowed, it could be considered not to let one company do it but to have many companies participate in organizing the auction with a more secure software and technical system.
Concerned about the abandonment of deposits, Mr. Thanh said that there should be more measures to prevent it, such as not setting a fixed deposit of 5 million VND or 40 million VND, but with so-called super VIP or super beautiful signs, it is possible to allow participants to increase the deposit. The deposit level should also be made public and clear when the number is put up for auction.
Dr. Khuong Kim Tao, former deputy chief of office of the National Traffic Safety Committee, also said that if the National Assembly agrees to expand the auction of motorbike license plates, the online technical infrastructure system for auctioning motorbike license plates must be carefully prepared, better, and overcome the limitations of auctioning car license plates.
The number of auction signs should also be moderate, not all auctions should be held to avoid overload, and the auction time and end of the auction should also be regulated more specifically, so that everyone who is interested can participate in the auction. Along with that, there should be more specific regulations on how to handle cases that may arise when participating in the auction and the network is congested...
Not too worried about losing the deposit, why?
Mr. Ngo Trung Thanh, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly's Law Committee, said that with the auction of car license plates or later if the National Assembly approves the expansion to include motorbike license plates, there should be no need to worry too much about forfeiting the deposit. Because the nature of license plates is different from other assets.
For example, with land, when conducting an auction, if deposits are abandoned, it can affect areas, investors, and project implementation... But with license plates, there is no loss, they are still in the warehouse managed by the State.
Not to mention that later when the economy develops, the price of the license plate may be higher than the previous auction price. In addition, the person who gives up the deposit will also lose the deposit of 5 million VND for the motorbike license plate as planned and this amount will be collected into the state budget.