SEREMBAN: The government needs more time to decide if Malaysians can have personalised registration plates for vehicles, says Transport Minister Anthony Loke.
He said the authorities wanted to look at several issues, particularly on security and enforcement, before it could give the go-ahead for the vanity plate initiative mooted several years ago.
“We know that this has been introduced in several countries and that it also brings in revenue for the government.
“But we need to sort out several issues including on the workings of the electronic plate for personalised registration plates before we can make a decision, ” he said after launching the “NDN” registration number series at the state Road Transport Department (JPJ) here.
An electronic licence plate is an identification sign mounted on vehicles that emits a wireless signal for tracking and digital monitoring.
Loke said the authorities needed to ensure a foolproof system could be introduced to prevent others from duplicating the unique registration plates.
“I may have a special LOKE registration plate here in Seremban but how are we going to stop anyone from using it elsewhere?
“So again, we also need to look at the enforcement part of it, ” he said.
Loke also said the JPJ e-bidding system was popular with Malaysians. Since April, 41 series have been launched.
“The JPJ has earned an income of some RM46mil from 39 series.
“I feel this is a good achievement. For the time being, I think this system is more workable and transparent, ” he said, adding that 109,361 individuals had also registered with the JPJ to be able to bid for any number in any state.
Loke said Perak’s “ALL” special registration series received the highest revenue with RM3.38mil under the e-bidding system.
“And the highest bid we received since was for ALL 1 with RM278,000, ” he said, adding that the most number of bids were received for “ALL 117” with 26 bids.
Loke said the e-bidding system was also better than the manual system used previously as it saved the government additional cost and was easy to access nationwide.
“Bidders are also no longer required to apply for bank drafts and submit these manually as they only have to use a credit card to bid, ” he said.
On the “NDN” special plate, which is the 42nd launched by the JPJ, Loke said bidding would open for five days from midnight on Nov 28 till 11.59pm on Dec 2.
The results will be announced on Dec 3.
Keyword: Want car vanity plates? Hold on, says minister