e-auction of vanity numbers sees dismal response

Deepkamal Kaur

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Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 22

Even as the e-auction scheme of the Punjab Transport Department to hold online bidding for the sale of fancy registration numbers of vehicles had started picking up initially, the response has gone down all over again.

In the PB-08-CP series for which the department held e-auction about 20 days ago, only 19 out of the 266 vanity numbers could be sold. Out of the sold numbers, nine have paid the amount while the remaining 10 have defaulted their dues which were supposed to be paid within a week of the closing of the bid and allotment of the number.

Leave aside single digit numbers, there have hardly been any takers even for double-digit numbers up to 0099 with a reserve price of Rs 1 lakh. Only two 0001 numbers priced at Rs 5 lakh have been sold after six e-auctions of series CJ, CK, CL, CM, CN and CP.

Nearly 64 vanity numbers in the CJ series, 50 in the CK series and 55 in the CL series were sold in the e-auction. But the response has come down in the subsequent CM and CN series with just 23 numbers going for sale. Further, since the prices of the numbers had been increased and not many people are keen to do online bidding, the competition in the bid amount remains low. The numbers are being sold slightly above the reserve amounts. Since the Transport Department has no provision for re-auction of numbers, there is a provision to allot the remaining numbers manually on the reserve price on a first-come-first-serve basis to applicants at the DTO office later. As the reserve prices are higher, the staff said most of the numbers were remaining vacant. The response in other districts to the e-auction also remains low. Only 10 fancy numbers could be sold in Ludhiana recently in a series whereas Muktsar got a slightly better deal at 23 numbers.

Transport Minister Ajit Singh Kohar said the system ensured complete transparency and would be continued in the future also.