Minister calms public anger over special numbers

PUTRAJAYA: Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Aziz Kaprawi (pix) has calmed public outcry over zero bidding for certain special vehicle registration numbers saying that only the prime minister (PM), deputy prime minister (DPM) and Cabinet ministers are entitled to them, besides the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and sultans.
The royalties are allocated seven special vehicle registration numbers while the PM and DPM, with two special numbers.
"Cabinet ministers are only entitled to a one time privilege to choose any registration number during their working tenure," Aziz told theSun.
Aziz said deputy ministers are not entitled for such benefit.
"Even I am not getting the facility," he said, adding that the Road Transport Department (RTD) always ensures procedures are adhered to when awarding special registration numbers to individuals.
He said the special registration numbers are given to Cabinet ministers, PM and DPM as they are classified as federal government administrative officials.
Aziz was clearing the air over the question of unnamed "Anggota Pentadbiran Kerajaan" as the owner of the two numbers – "V 38" and "V 6" – with zero bidding in the list released by RTD last month.
He was asked to comment about special registration numbers, which could have possibly fetched a high amount through public bidding, but had been awarded to certain "Government Administrative Officials", resulting in lower revenue for the government after a bidding exercise.
He also reiterated that no civil servant was given the privilege during the recent tender bidding process for new prefixes of "F 1 to F 9999" (Putrajaya) and "V 1 to V 9999" (Kuala Lumpur).
The tender process for KL's new prefix from July 15-28, has yielded the highest revenue ever recorded for a vehicle registration tender drive. An official statement will be issued soon by RTD on the overall revenue generated from the "V" series tender process.
Previously, the tender results for the "F 1 until F 9999" prefix saw RM17 million from 2,276 successfully registered numbers.
For the "V" tender results, Johor ruler Sultan Ibrahim Almarhum Sultan Iskandar again broke the record for the highest bidding ever at RM989,780 to own the "V 1" number plate.
Prior to that, Sultan Ibrahim broke several records by paying RM836,660 for "F 1" registration number in July, RM748,000 for "W 1 N" and RM520,000 for "WWW 1" in 2014 and 2012 respectively.
Last year, the purported highest bidding ever recorded for a car registration number did not materialise after an unknown bidder abandoned the deal to own the "Patriot 1" vanity registration despite putting in a RM1.3 million bid with Yayasan Patriot Negara Malaysia.