Hyderabad: People’s fancy for fancy vehicle registration numbers among owners is filling the coffers of the transport department. The Regional Transport Authority Hyderabad has raked in Rs 21.12 crore this year from the auction of fancy numbers, about Rs 8 crore more than last year.
The department has fixed Rs 50,000 as reservation fee for numbers like 1, 9, 999 and 9999. For all numbers that bear the same digits — like 99, 333, 555, 666, 777, 888, 2222, 3333, 4444, 5555, 6666, 7777 and 8888 — the reservation fee is Rs 30,000. The Rs 20,000 category includes 123, 222, 369, 444, 567, 786, 1111, 1116, 3366, 3456 and 4455.
Other fancy numbers like 3, 5, 6, 7, 111, 234 and 9009 or 9099 can be reserved for Rs 10,000. Numbers other than those in these three categories can be reserved or bought for Rs 5,000, while any current number can be reserved by paying Rs 1,000.
Joint transport commissioner (IT & Vigilance) C. Ramesh said, “This year, Rs 21.12 crore were collected through the auction of fancy numbers compared to last year when we collected Rs 13.93 crore, a rise of Rs 51.59. The desire to have special numbers has been increasing every year.
Numbers 6 and 9 are the most sought-after in Hyderabad. A business house, Hetero Drugs, made the highest bid of Rs 9.50 lakh this year for the registration number TS 09 ES9999.” Mr Ramesh said, “Revenue from fancy numbers increases by 30-40 per cent every year, but this year there was 50 per cent hike in collections from auctions.
“Applications for number reservation have to be dropped in a sealed box along with a Demand Draft (DD) of the specified amount on all working days.” “If there is more than one application in a day for one particular number, tenders in closed envelopes can be submitted between 1 pm and 3 pm. The number will be awarded to the highest bidder,” he added.
RTA authorities are also planning to have an online service for fancy numbers, a proposal for which is under consideration of the government. Authorities, however, said that returning the money to people who lost bids may become a challenge in the online facility. According to the current system, if a person loses a bid, the DD is sent back to him/her.
Online refunds may not be so immediate. Joint transport commissioner J. Panduranga Naik said, “Most people who seek fancy numbers are owners of cars worth Rs 4-5 crore. For them spending Rs 10 lakh more on a number of their choice is not much of an issue. Businessman, industrialists, celebrities, politicians, etc like to have special numbers on their vehicles.”
