JOIN USAfter Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung’s nod, the Delhi government is preparing to lap up Rs 200 crore annually through e-auctioning of fancy car registration numbers by putting a minimum price tag of Rs 5 lakh each on some of them.
The e-bidding will be open to online applicants interested in participating in the fortnightly auction on the transport department’s website for four-wheel vehicles’ registration numbers such as 0001, 0007 or 0009.
An official of the transport department said the auction would begin with a minimum bid price set by the government for each number and the bidders will keep sending their higher bids in a transparent process.
“In cities like Chandigarh, there have been instances where fancy number seekers ended up spending more on the VIP registration numbers than the cost of their SUVs,” said an official, hoping for good response in the capital.
The proposed e-bidding will replace an ad hoc and non-transparent procedure followed at present for allotment of fancy registration numbers to vehicle owners.
At present, recommendation of the city’s transport minister or the chief minister is believed to be a pre-condition for anyone to get his or her dream vehicle number.
The new e-bidding procedure for allotment of VIP numbers may also not be fair in the real sense as certain groups of government functionaries may take the number without digging deep into their own pockets.
The special group of people may include parliamentarians, legislators, judicial officers and bureaucrats.
The online bidding for the VIP numbers will be divided into five categories – A to E – with each having a different base price. Category A will deal with the single digit number like 0001 in different series, for a minimum price of Rs 5 lakh.
Category B will be limited to numbers 0002 to 0009 each of which would carry a base bid price of Rs 3 lakh. Vehicle numbers from 0010 to 0099 and 0786 will be auctioned for a minimum of Rs 2 lakh in Category C.
In Category D, a car owner will have to bid from a base price of Rs 1 lakh to get numbers like 0100, 0111, 0222, 0333, 0999 and others. The last Category E, will be for those who are happy with a four-digit number within the options of their choice. They will have to shell out Rs 20,000.