A Car Plate = 21001 RMB Now

The average successful bidding price for a car plate drops to 21001 RMB this month, continued its first dropping last month.

It is due to the rumor that car plate bidding will be cancelled this July. It seems the rumor is only rumor. The July bidding has been arranged to happen on July 24, 2004. Just see how big the influence of a policy is to the market in China.

History of the car plate price:

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10 thoughts on “A Car Plate = 21001 RMB Now”

I do not 100% understand original intention of Shanghai Municipal government for this CAR PLATE BIDDING thing. Do they want to use this policy to control the inflated number of personal car ownership in Shanghai? And where are they going to spend this bidding money they collected?

Say i want to own a car in Shanghai. I guess I have to bid for a plate and spend 21k RMB. But my neighbour Mr. Little Wang paid only a minimal fee since he got his car before this “bidding policy” took effective. I may only use my car once a month and he is using his everyday! Question here is: why I pay more than he did. Maybe he bought his car at the “Right Time” and i do not. Let people bidding for a plate certainly is a big leap for Shanghai government since this could eliminate the need of sending my classmate’s father’s friend’s neighbour two cartons of cigrate and treat him a fancy seafood dinner. But is there a better way to control the overwhelming traffic problem in Shanghai? I think maybe Shanghai should tax the usage of car instead of taxing the ownership of a car. Auto industry is playing a much bigger role in today’s economic life in China. We don’t want to kill it. Put the tax/surcharge in gas price could be a good idea since the more you use your gas-burning car the more you pay.

Unfortunately, in past 100 years or so, Chinese have been dealing with the “At the Right Time” phenomenon all the time. Laws, policies, and even beliefs are changing every few years. A big chance is they were not changed based on the principal of fairness. There are cut-off time, cut-off age, cut-off wealth (to determine who is counter-revolution), etc. I think Law is about fairness, not “At Right Time”, although sometimes we do need cut-off time/age to do the math to implement the laws.

I applaud the reform and progress Shanghai government made on itself. And i certainly wish Shanghai keep reforming itself by creating more innovative policies and laws, with fairness to all her residents in mind. (Maybe refund some of the money collected if this Plate-Bidding policy gets canceled)

Shen

A tax on auto useage would be much harder to implement. The government would have to track the odometer readings for every car to see how far it was driven. This would simply lead to the creation of a new industry in Shanghai: the illegal alteration of odometers (to lower their readings). Everyone would have their odometer changed to reduce their tax.

The quality of life in Shanghai could be much more improved by a different regulation: remove each car’s HORN before it can be registered. The same rule should apply to motorcycles and scooters. Imagine how much nicer life would be in Shanghai without tens of thousands of drivers pointlessly honking their horns every minute as they drive.

If they drove with a good attitude and kept distance, it would not be necessary to honk ! :-)

Shanghai Guy,

In US, government taxes car usage by adding all the fees, surcharge to the gas price. The more gas you buy, the tax you pay.

Shen

China is planning the same gasoline tax right now.

Shen is correct that we pay taxes based on Fuel. In addition local city needs (like a new stadium) may tax Alcohol, Cigarettes, and Gasoline. We call that a “sin-tax”. Once it is built they try to ban all smoking in new building smokers paid for and there is an attitude problem with the masses. (imagine that)