Fancy ‘Malaysia’ for your car plate? Wait next month

PUTRAJAYA: New car registration number plate series, Malaysia 1 to Malaysia 9999, will be opened for bidding nationwide from July 2 to 16, in a move expected to raise more than RM22 million for the government.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke said successful bidders can use the new number plates from Aug 23, in time for Merdeka Day.

The bidding boxes will be placed at all Road Transport Department (RTD) offices nationwide and there is no minimum bid for each number.

“We could raise more than RM22 million from previous open biddings for numbers conducted by RTD,” said Loke, adding the move was agreed to by the Cabinet last week.

He said the revenue from open bidding will be used as cross subsidy for public transport initiatives, such as the proposed RM100 monthly pass to use public transport and proposals to improve the bus service.

“If the ministry can increase its revenue, we can use it for the transport industry instead of depending on the treasury for money,” he added.

Loke said the ministry will stop issuing special car registration numbers for NGOs or government officers.

“Except for the prime minister. He will be given the option of having the Malaysia 2020 number plate,” he said in acknowledgement of the Vision 2020 idea promoted by Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Loke said RTD collected RM22.48 million from the previous special “V” plate number series and RM17.55 million from the special “F” series.

“From just the F1 registration number, RTD collected RM800,000. But the highest amount raised was from the “Patriot 1” series of RM1.3 million.

“But the RM1.3 million did not go into government coffers. It was given to an NGO (Yayasan Patriot Negara Malaysia) in 2015.”

He said all open bidding of car registration plates will now go to the government.

“The government needs more income, especially cross subsidy for public transport.”

The “Malaysia” series will be followed by a series for individual states such as Selangor, Perlis, Perak, Kedah, and others in September or October.

Meanwhile, Loke said he will suggest to the Cabinet to form a monitoring committee to relook at all the suggestions to reduce road accidents.

“There are 51 suggestions on reducing bus accidents. We want to revisit the reports and proposals,” he said, adding that Ops Raya by RTD this year will start on June 7 to monitor traffic.