Tran Huu T, 51, in Nghe An, the owner of a KIA Sonet with the number plate 37A- 999.99, sold the car at VND1.6 billion last April.

“I bought the car for VND670 million. As I got a lucky number plate, the value of the car increased by threefold,” he said.

T said the car was transferred to a man who specializes in trading vehicles with lucky number plates.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Van N, 44, in Gia Binh district, the owner of a Hyundai SantaFe with the number plate 99A - 555.55, has had to refuse to sell the car for a high price many times. One man was willing to pay VND4 billion to buy the car, valued at VND1.4 billion.

In 2020, a Mercedes C300 AMG with the plate 51H-77777 was sold for VND5.5 billion, (the quoted price was VND1.929 billion).

Realizing demand, the Ministries of Public Security (MPS), Finance and Justice have submitted to the government a plan to organize vehicle number plate auctions and collect fees from the granting of vehicle number plates chosen by the owners.

On August 6, the government approved a proposal for a new National Assembly resolution on piloting the granting of vehicle number plates through auctions.

In April, MPS drafted a resolution on granting the right to choose car number plates through auctions on a trial basis, with provisions related to the starting prices of number plates, rights and obligations of people who win the auctions, and the use of money from auctions.

Under the draft document, all car license plates with a white background, black letters and numbers (individual license plates) in stock which have not been registered can be put up for auction.

The agencies organizing auctions are the police of cities and provinces. The police will hire asset auctioning firms to organize the auctions.

The starting prices are as follows:

Region 1 (Hanoi, HCM City): starting price (Vietnam dong) = the highest registration fee applied in the localities times 2.

Region 2 (other localities): starting price (Vietnam dong) = the highest registration fee applied in the localities times 10.

Auction winners will sign contracts with auction agencies in order to establish the right to use auctioned number plates. When selling cars, they can retain the number plates and register for other cars they have. If they change addresses (move to other cities/provinces), they won’t have to return the number plates.

The money to be collected from the auctions, after deducting the organization costs and other expense items, will be paid to the central budget (70 percent) and local budgets (30 percent).

Dinh Hieu