The Transport Bureau (DSAT) claims that approximately 86,000 vehicle registrations have not been properly canceled by the motor vehicle registration department. As a result, the same license plate number cannot be reused on the registration of another vehicle, representatives from the DSAT said to the Legislative Assembly First Standing Committee. The committee met on Monday to discuss the new bill on motor vehicle registration in detail.
According to the president of the committee, lawmaker Ella Lei, the new law will allow DSAT to resolve this matter and remove the registration data of vehicles that have been retired from use or otherwise disposed from the registry, so the license plate numbers can be reused.
According to the rules in Macau, which follow the previous Portuguese system of issuing vehicle license plates, the numbering previously used an “M” as the primary letter followed by a combination from A to Z, and numbers from 0001 to 9999.
Due to the lack of available new numbers, in September of 2021, DSAT scrapped the use of the first fixed “M” and began issuing license plates with a combination of two letters starting from “AA” to allow for more combinations.
Once in force, the new law will allow DSAT to reuse registration numbers and revert to following the original system.
According to Lei, the government expects the new law to commence during the first quarter of next year.
