PUTRAJAYA, Jun 4 — Special “Malaysia” number plates will be up for bidding to mark independence day this year, the Transport Ministry announced today.
Its minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook said the numbers “Malaysia 1” to “Malaysia 9999”, will be up for bidding between July 2 and July 16.
Loke expects the special numbers to fetch more than RM20 million in revenue for the government coffers.
He had previously said that the government will cease the practise of allowing non-governmental organisations to commission special number plates from the Road Transport Department in a bid to raise their own funds.
Loke also said there are plans for the state RTDs to start a state series bearing plates such as “Selangor” and “Perak” after bidding ends for the “Malaysia” plates.
“We will see how to go about it, but after this number plate bidding is done, we should be able to start the state ones in September or October,” he said.
Loke said that there are no reservations for the 9999 special issue number plates, except for the “2020” number plate.
“That will be something that will be reserved for the Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, because 2020 was his brainchild. But it depends on whether he wants it,” he added.
To date, the highest bid for a single plate issued by the government was RM989,780 for the V1 number plate.
The highest price paid for a number plate overall was RM1.3 million for the Patriot 1 number plate, but the proceeds were collected by the Patriot Foundation and not the government, a practice that Loke decided to end.
