Dominican Republic License Plates: Bill for each province

The Senate is studying a bill that, if enacted, would require the 6.1 million vehicles in the Dominican Republic to display license plates that originate from their owners' provinces .

That is, if the law were to be approved, the license plates could incorporate symbols representing each province . For example, Santo Domingo's license plate could bear the image of the Columbus Lighthouse; Santiago's, the Monument; Puerto Plata's, the cable car; Montecristi's, El Morro; and La Altagracia's, the Basilica, among other local symbols.

The initiative, submitted by ruling party senators Ginnette Bournigal of Puerto Plata and Héctor Acosta of Monseñor Nouel, would change the license plate that has been in place for 25 years. Another objective of the plan is to promote the idiosyncrasies or emblematic places of the towns, as well as to strengthen citizen safety, since "if a vehicle is involved in an incident, its place of origin would be known."

In 2003, President Hipólito Mejía issued a decree establishing the current license plate design , whose common image, in addition to the individual numbering, is the Puerta del Conde (Count's Gate ). There are also approximately 30 types, ranging from regular vehicles to state vehicles, exempt vehicles, diplomatic vehicles, military vehicles, and others.

Process

The legislation is currently under review by the Senate's Transportation and Communications Committee. This committee must submit a report to the Senate to determine whether the proposal is admissible. If so, it must be approved in two consecutive readings before being sent to the Chamber of Deputies, where it must follow the same procedure.

If the bill is approved by both chambers, it would be passed to the Executive Branch for enactment.

The document establishes that the General Directorate of Internal Revenue (DGII) and the Ministry of Culture will be responsible for designing the decals that vehicles will display on the front and rear.

In the Dominican Republic, there are more than 30 types of license plates for a national vehicle fleet that, as of September 2024, was 6,081,697 .

A proposal in 2020

The idea isn't new. In 2020, artist Andy Castillo shared with the media his proposal that license plates across the country include a symbol representing each region.

In a piece published by Diario Libre in the middle of that year, he explained that the inspiration came in 2013 while he was in the United States, where he noticed that each vehicle had a license plate distinguishing the state to which it belonged.

In May 2017, he registered the project with the National Copyright Office (ONDA) under the title "Graphic Representation of Dominican Vehicle License Plates," presenting design models of what these plates might look like.

At that time he said he was going to take it to Congress.

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