KOCHI: The trend of people willing to pay to get fancy registration numbers for their vehicles, has fetched district’s Road Transport Office a good revenue. In the last five years, the RTO has collected about Rs 2.67 crore from the registration of fancy numbers.“The revenue collected from the allocation of fancy numbers has increased over the last five years. It has reached Rs 72 lakh this financial year alone,” said T J Thomas, Regional Transport Officer, Ernakulam. An amount of Rs 5,71,0250 was collected in 2007-08 fiscal and Rs 5,96,0500 in 2008-09. In the fiscal 2009-10, the revenue collected was Rs 7,35,7900. It was Rs 7,69,3190 in 2010-11, he said and added that the revenue is expected to cross Rs 90 lakh this financial year. The most sought after numbers are ‘1’ and ‘9’ series. To get these numbers, people need to register their vehicles first and then pay for the registration of the fancy number. The charge for digit ‘1’ is Rs 1 lakh and ‘9999’ is Rs 50,000. If there are more than one person seeking for the number of choice, the decision is taken through bidding. The minimum registration cost for other fancy numbers is Rs 3000.Thomas said that the demand for fancy numbers is always on a rise. Some registration numbers in every series are notified as fancy numbers by the government. He said that the new system by the previous government has streamlined the whole process. Under the previous system, any person could register for a fancy number by paying `2000 without submitting any testimonials of the vehicle. Then, even the brokers could book the numbers. Also, there was a margin for bargain with the vehicle owners. In the new system, only the vehicle owner can register as testimonials such as Temporary Registration Certificate, Tax Certificates and form for the application for advance reservation of fancy number are needed. Thomas added that the process of allotment of fancy numbers has become transparent.
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