Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Sep 12:

Odisha Transport Commissioner is working on a draft bill for auction of fancy automobile registration plates online to earn more revenue for the department.

fancy car no

“The fancy number plates of automobiles would soon be auctioned online. The State Government would earn more revenue from this. After the recent cabinet decision to raise motor vehicle tax to increase revenue, this is an additional step to up the revenue earnings further,” said Transport Minister Ramesh Majhi.

Earlier, two-wheeler owners had to pay Rs 5,000 and four-wheeler owners Rs 10,000 to procure fancy numbers. However, quite often, more than one applicant lobbied for the same number and many used pressure tactics and underhand dealing to get their favoured fancy number.

The new system intends to address this concern in a free and fair manner while eliminating corruption and earning extra revenue for the state.

It may be noted that the State Road Transportation Department has 42 number between 1 and 9999 categorised as 'fancy numbers'. There has always been a special demand for the number between 1 till 9, special numbers with the same number repeating itself such as 11 till 99, 111 till 999 and 1111 till 9999. Besides, there also is a special set of customers that fancy numbers such as 786, 3, 333, 3333 etc.

As per the new provision, the minimum bidding price for number -1 would be Rs 1 Lakh. The price for other single digit numbers till 9 and two digit number repeating the same number would be set at Rs 60,000. Similarly, the minimum bidding price for other fancy numbers would be set at Rs 40,000, as per information provided by a senior official of Transport Department.