Mr. Nguyen Van Hung (Cau Giay District, Hanoi) works as a passenger shuttle at the airport. His family car is used for transportation business, so he changed the license plate to yellow since the beginning of 2024, however, he has not changed the vehicle registration.

Before Tet, when the vehicle was due for inspection, Mr. Hung was unexpectedly refused inspection because of a discrepancy between the registration certificate and the color of the license plate.

"We look forward to Tet all year long, but now we have to wait until the vehicle registration is changed to get it inspected, so the vehicle cannot operate and we lose income," Mr. Hung complained.

Mr. Hung’s case is not uncommon. According to statistics from the Vietnam Automobile Transportation Association (VATA), there are about 1.2 million commercial vehicles nationwide that have changed their license plates but have not changed their vehicle registration certificates.

This problem arose after Article 39 of the Law on Road Traffic Safety and Order took effect from January 1, 2025 and Article 18 of Circular No. 79/2024 of the Ministry of Public Security required vehicle owners to change their vehicle registration certificates when their white-background license plates changed to yellow-background license plates and vice versa.

In addition, Decree 166/2024 and Circular 47/2024 of the Ministry of Transport stipulate that inspection is not required in cases where there is a discrepancy between the vehicle registration certificate and the actual vehicle.

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With the new regulation, many vehicles with yellow license plates but not yet registered are denied inspection. Photo: Hoang Ha

Speaking with VietNamNet reporter, Mr. Le Trung Tinh, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Passenger Automobile Transport Association, said that before Tet, he had received many complaints from members about this issue, causing great impact on transport units.

“At the same time from January 1, 2025, many new regulations will take effect, making it very difficult to implement. Not being able to register immediately will not only cause difficulties for drivers and transport businesses, but also affect the economy. Because Tet is the "season" of transport, the demand for transporting goods and passengers increases, while vehicles are stuck and cannot be registered,” Mr. Tinh informed.

Therefore, the Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Passenger Automobile Transport Association proposed that the Ministry of Public Security issue a document extending the deadline until July 1, 2025 for transport business vehicles that have changed to yellow license plates to complete the change of registration certificates.

VATA has also sent a document to the Prime Minister and relevant ministries and agencies requesting timely resolution. In the immediate future, VATA proposes to relax the requirement that vehicles must be registered with the correct license plate color to be inspected within 6 months.

In response to the above comments, the Vietnam Register proposed that the Ministry of Transport allow registration facilities nationwide to inspect vehicles with discrepancies between the registration certificate and the vehicle because the vehicle owner has not completed the procedure to change the vehicle registration certificate.

According to the proposal, car owners are "owed" to present a new vehicle registration certificate within 45 days and the roadmap for car owners to change their vehicle registration certificate is no more than 6 months.

Specifically, vehicles that meet inspection requirements will be issued a stamp and a copy of the inspection certificate with the words "Valid for 45 days from the date of issue". When the vehicle owner presents the new vehicle registration certificate, the original will be returned.

The leader of the Vietnam Register said that this proposal is to create conditions for vehicle owners to have time to change their vehicle registration certificates, not interrupt transportation activities and limit damage.

"This roadmap helps vehicle registration facilities and vehicle owners comply with regulations, ensures consistency of vehicle data between vehicle registration agencies and inspection agencies, and facilitates vehicle management," said a representative of the Vietnam Register.