Bhubaneswar: A fancy number plate — OD 02 XX 0001 — has fetched the highest bidding price of Rs 1.75 lakh during the online registration auction and advance registration number booking system by the State Transport Authority (STA).
Overall, the Odisha government has earned Rs 11.24 crore in revenue towards fancy and preferred vehicle registration numbers between October, 2020 and March 31 this year. The revenue generated during the same period in the previous fiscal year was Rs 6 crore.
During October, 2019 to March, 2020, the government had generated revenue of Rs 6 crore.
In the last six months (October, 2020 to March, 2021), the revenue from the auction of fancy numbers stood at Rs 1.18 crore and Rs 10.06 crore was generated from advance booking of numbers, the STA informed.
Of this amount, the Bhubaneswar Regional Transport Office (RTO)-I collected the highest revenue of Rs 2.81 crore, followed by the Cuttack RTO that earned Rs 1.23 crore.
STA had introduced the fancy number registration auction and advance registration number booking system via online in June, 2016.
“The vehicle owner intending to participate in this auction has to register his/her name and select the number during the bidding period in the first seven days of every month. Online bidding is opened from 8th to 15th each month and the highest bidder is allocated the number,” Transport Commissioner-cum-Chairman of STA, Sanjeeb Panda was quoted as saying by The New Indian Express.
The online auction is available for 61 notified numbers in four categories with base price ranging from Rs 1 lakh, Rs 60,000, Rs 40,000 and Rs 20,000 for each number.
Under the state government’s 5T policy, STA had introduced the dealer point verification from October 6, 2020.
Notably, Odisha became the first state in the country to implement paperless and contact less vehicle registration by introducing uploading of documents through digital signatures of the dealers.
