License plate limits draw public ire

Ambiguity in a recent transportation report has sparked speculation Wednesday that the local government will limit how long license plates are valid for, forcing Shanghai's car owners to repeatedly repay the country's highest fee for vehicle registration.

The latest white book on transportation development, which was released Tuesday, states that there will be a time limit on the usage of the "license plate quota."

When contacted, the institution under the Shanghai Urban Construction and Communications Commission that drafted the white book refused to explain what it meant by "license plate quota." It also declined to comment on whether vehicle registration in Shanghai might one day have an expiration date. Currently, vehicle registration in Shanghai does not expire.

Many residents aired their concerns about expirable vehicle registration on the municipal government's official microblog. As of Wednesday afternoon, 150 comments had been left underneath the post about the white book. Most were angry.

One commenter said he could not believe that he spent 80,000 yuan ($13,016) on a plate purchase that might turn out to just be a lease.

Wu Yanyu, a resident who spent 72,000 yuan for his vehicle registration in the last auction, said he would have gotten it in a neighboring province, where it is far cheaper, if he had known it might one day expire.

The transportation authority said that about one-third of private vehicles that run in Shanghai long-term were registered outside the city, according to statistics from 2012.

The controls on vehicle registration aim to restrict the number of cars on the road downtown, Zhu Hong, a vice director at the institution that drafted the white book, said on Shanghai Television Station Wednesday. Zhu added that a detailed policy will come out based on the city's air quality and traffic conditions.

Making vehicle registration expire would help the government meet its goal, said Li Keping, an expert in urban transportation planning at Tongji University's School of Transportation Engineering.

"A time limit would control the number of Shanghai license plates and slow the growth of the number of cars on the road," Li told the Global Times.

Li suggested that the government could offer vehicle registrations that are valid for different periods of time.

For example, a registration that expires in five years might sell at auction for 40,000 yuan. He said the change would provide car owners with more registration options.