New Government regulations on vehicle license plate auctions

According to Decree 156/2024/ND-CP recently issued by the Government , the starting price of a car license plate put up for auction is 40 million VND, increasing every three years from January 1, 2025, each time increasing by 5 million VND.

Illustrative image. (Source: People's Police)

The Government issued Decree No. 156/2024/ND-CP regulating vehicle license plate auctions.

The Decree stipulates that the license plates to be auctioned are license plates of cars, motorbikes and scooters specified in Points c and d, Clause 2, Article 36 of the Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety 2024.

The Minister of Public Security decides the number of license plates to be auctioned at each auction session, including license plates from provinces and centrally-administered cities currently in the Ministry of Public Security's vehicle registration and management system, and supplementing the number of license plates for the Public Security departments of provinces and centrally-administered cities in case they run out of license plates for registration before the next auction session.

The decree stipulates that the auction of vehicle license plates will be conducted online. The auction method will be an ascending bid method.

The starting price for a car license plate offered at auction is 40 million VND, increasing by 5 million VND every three years starting from January 1, 2025. The starting price for a motorcycle or scooter license plate offered at auction is 5 million VND, increasing by 1 million VND every three years starting from January 1, 2025...

The Decree stipulates that the deposit is equal to the starting price of a vehicle license plate to be auctioned. The deposit is deposited into a separate payment account of the property auction organization opened at a bank from the date of listing the property auction until two days before the auction opening date.

In the event of a successful bid, the deposit will be transferred to the Ministry of Public Security's dedicated collection account to be paid into the state budget as prescribed.

The starting price for car license plate auctions is 5 million VND; for motorbike and scooter license plate auctions is 500,000 VND.

Six steps to auctioning license plates.

The Decree specifies the steps for conducting a vehicle license plate auction:

Registration for auction participation: Registration for auction participation is conducted entirely online through the online auction information page of the asset auction organization; participants register and submit registration documents on the online auction information page; participants are solely responsible for the accuracy and truthfulness of the information declared during registration.

Auction participants are provided with an access account and instructed on how to use the account, how to place bids, and other information on the online auction website to participate in the auction.

Auction participants can choose license plates according to their needs from the list of license plates offered for auction in all provinces and centrally-governed cities nationwide.

Auction participants shall submit application fees and deposit for the license plate number they have chosen to participate in the auction to the account of the property auction organization as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 7 and Clause 1, Article 8 of this Decree and shall be granted an auction code for that license plate number auction.

Auction organizations sell auction participation documents and receive auction participation documents from the date of asset auction announcement until two days before the auction date.

Auction participants access the online auction website using their accounts and follow the auction procedures as stipulated in the Auction Regulations.

At the end of the online auction, the Online Auction Information Page determines the auction winner, announces the auction results, displays the auction minutes for the auction winner to confirm, and sends a notification to the auction participant's email address registered with the property auction organization.

When the registration period for the auction expires and only one person registers to participate in the auction, that person will be determined to be the winner of the vehicle license plate auction. The winner will receive a notification and a record of the winning bid for that license plate before the auction is held.

The asset auction organization is responsible for reviewing applications, verifying the information of auction participants, assigning auctioneers to conduct the online auction on the online auction website, and authenticating the auction minutes with digital signatures before sending them to the winning bidder.

The Ministry of Public Security supervises the auction organization process, auction results, authenticates the auction minutes with digital signatures and other related contents.

In case of stopping the auction, disqualification from participating in the auction and handling of arising situations

The decree stipulates that auction organizations and auctioneers are required to stop an auction in the following cases: when the Ministry of Public Security requests the auction organization to stop the auction if there are grounds to believe that the auction organization or auctioneer has violated the professional ethical standards of auctioneers and other regulations in the Auction Regulations; or in the event of force majeure.

The Ministry of Public Security shall decide on the re-organization of the auction after meeting all the conditions for organizing the auction as prescribed in Clause 2, Article 9 of this Decree and other relevant legal provisions.

Cases of disqualification from auction participation: Providing false information and documents; using fake documents to register for auction participation, participating in auctions; Colluding, connecting with auctioneers, property auction organizations, property owners, other auction participants, other individuals and organizations to suppress prices, distort property auction results; Obstructing property auction activities, using software to affect the auction process or auction results; causing disturbances in auctions; Threatening, coercing auctioneers, other auction participants to distort property auction results; Other prohibited acts according to the provisions of law.

The Decree clearly states that in case of violation of the above provisions, the organization practicing asset auction shall report to the Ministry of Public Security to stop recognizing or cancel the auction results and transfer to the competent authority for handling according to regulations.

Listing and transmitting auction results

Within one working day from the date of auction closing, the property auction organization must publicly post on the Online Auction Information Page the results of the vehicle license plate auction.

Within three working days from the date of auction closing, the property auction organization must transfer the auction results, auction minutes, and list of auction winners electronically and transfer the deposit to the Ministry of Public Security to approve the auction results and complete related procedures./.

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