Rs. 1 million for personalised number plates

Sri Lankans here and abroad will be able to obtain personalised number plates for the vehicles they buy in Sri Lanka in terms of proposals made to the Cabinet by Transport Minister Kumara Welgama.

The Minister has proposed that Rs. 1 million be charged for each personalised number plate which will be issued in association with the Information and Communication Technology Institute ( ICTI) of Sri Lanka while a private company will be contracted to develop suitable software.

In terms of the Cabinet paper, an online method of auctioning number plates will be introduced. The number plates could be obtained in a combination of limited colours and letters. The Minister has also proposed the compilation of a software programme which will enable online identification of the normal number along with the specific number.

In July 2000, the Department of Motor Traffic started registration numbers with two English letters. It was followed, in August 2012, by numbers with three English letters under three categories. The Minister says an additional income of Rs. 1,469 million was earned by the Government on the issuance of specific registration numbers. The Minister says in his Cabinet paper that Sri Lankans living in Western countries have been pressing for a system of issuing personalised number plates for vehicles they buy in Sri Lanka. They say such a system exists in Western and several Asian countries.

The Minister says the private sector also is interested in a system of registering vehicles in this manner. He proposes a Build, Operate and Transfer project in collaboration with the ICTI.

Steps will be taken to issue a normal registration number to all vehicles on payment of the specific state charges, without the proposed methodology being a hindrance to the existing system of registration of vehicles.

Software is to be designed for online reservation of registration numbers; to dispose such numbers, if and when necessary, through online auctions; to obtain extensions, if and when necessary, after 10 years, on payment of charges determined by the Department; or return to the Department and receive the cost agreed at auctions.