Maharashtra RTO Increases Prices For VIP Number Plates Across Its Cities

Unique or VIP vehicle registration numbers are nothing new! But in case you want to get one for your brand-new vehicle and you are based out of Maharashtra, then be prepared to pay more money than usual because the Maharashtra has increased the rates of VIP numbers for four-wheelers, starting with '0001' and you might end up paying upwards of Rs. 6 lakh in cities like Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and other big cities of Maharashtra. For out of series VIP plates, one may have to pay up to Rs. 18 lakh! This is the first instance of Maharashtra increasing the rates of VIP registration numbers since April 2013.

For two and three-wheelers, the fee for unique registration numbers will increase from Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 1 lakh in cities like Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Nashik, Pune along with Mumbai and its suburbs. Similarly, the VIP fees for '0001' will see an increase from Rs. 4 lakh to Rs. 6 lakh for vehicles with four or more wheels. And if you want the '0001', then you will have to shell out Rs. 5 lakh for four-wheelers, up from the current Rs. 3 lakh.

The new 'three-times basic' fees will now be Rs. 15 lakh, for vehicles with four wheels and above. For two and three-wheelers, the fees will be Rs. 3 lakh if the '0001' number is unavailable in the present series. The registration fees for the 16 most popular numbers is now Rs. 1 lakh for four-wheelers and Rs. 25,000 for two-wheelers. Earlier, the fees were Rs. 70,000 and Rs. 15,000 respectively.

The other big change is the fact that the government will now allow the transfer of VIP numbers to immediate family members of the original person, which wasn't allowed during before.