JPJ rules out personalised licence plates for the moment

KUALA PILAH: Car owners hoping to get personalised registration numbers will have to wait as the Road Transport Department (JPJ) is not planning to introduce vanity plates anytime soon.

“Personalised numbers may be unique but it is not easy to implement it based on current legislation, ” said JPJ director-general Datuk Zailani Hashim.

He said the Road Transport Act would have to be amended before it is allowed.

He also cited situations where people with similar names wanted to buy the same registration number.

“How are we going to regulate this? And if there is more than one car with the same vanity plate, then the wrong person may end up getting fined for a traffic offence,” he told reporters after opening the new Kuala Pilah JPJ office here.

In 2012, then JPJ director-general Datuk Solah Mat Hassan said owners of all types of vehicles could bid for personalised numbers once JPJ’s computer system was upgraded and new security features incorporated.

JPJ was allocated RM282mil to upgrade its system as part of the Government Transformation Programme which, among others, allowed motorists to renew their licence and road tax online.

Yesterday, Zailani said JPJ’s e-bidding system, which enabled vehicle owners to apply for registration plates of any state from their homes, had helped boost its revenue.

Last year, the department earned RM178mil from the exercise compared to RM62mil the previous year.