HANOI,June 6 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's five biggest cities have been allowed to auction motorized vehicles' number plates on a trial basis, which will bring a large sum of money to the state budget, the Vietnamese Traffic Police Department said on Tuesday.
Hanoi capital city, northern Hai Phong city, central Da Nang city, southern Can Tho city and Ho Chi Minh City will auction number plates which either have repetitive numbers such as 99.999 and 11.111 or coincide with celebration days or birthdays.
To have number plates considered to be beautiful such as 13.579 and 55.555, or thought to bring luck to owners such as 88.888 or 68.686, local people have to pay additional fees.
The starting price of automobile number plates slated for auctions will be at least 10 times higher than normal fees, and that of motorbike number plate at least five times higher, an official from the department under the Ministry of Public Security told Xinhua.
The normal fees currently stand at 150,000-20 million Vietnamese dong (6.6-885 U.S. dollars) per automobile, and 50,000-4 million Vietnamese dong (2.2-177 U.S. dollars), depending mainly on the type and value of vehicles and on the location of owners.
If auctions of beautiful and lucky number plates run smoothly, tens of thousands of billions of Vietnamese dong (hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars) will be added to the state budget, the official said, adding that other number plates will be selected at random as usual.
At present, without auctions, wealthy or influential people often give or receive bribes for the issuance of beautiful or luck number plates.
By the end of last year, Vietnam had over 2.5 million automobiles, including 1.3 million cars with nine seats or fewer, according to the Ministry of Transport.
As of late February 2017, Vietnam had 45 million motorbikes, according to statistics from motorbike producers and traders in the country.
