Car owners bidding for vehicle registration plates with special numbers starting with “AA” added around MOP 19 million to the public coffers, the Transport Bureau has announced.
A total of 550 vehicle registration plates starting with “AA” were up for bidding, but only 172 of them were sold. The bureau received 476 bids for the 172 registration plates.
Vehicle registration plates starting with “AA” have already been issued over recent weeks after registration plates beginning with “MZ” had been used up.
Before the recent issue of registration plates starting with “AA”, for decades the city’s vehicle registration plates have been marked with an “M” plus a letter of the Western alphabet – or simply an “M” without another letter, followed by four Arabic numerals. Vehicle registration plates had been issued in alphabetical order – with “M” and then “MA” the earliest and “MZ” issued most recently before “AA” for non-motorcycle vehicles, except if vehicle owners buy vehicle registration plates with special numbers (also always four digits) arranged by the government.
The issue of registration plates for motorcycles is separate from the issue of registration plates for all the other vehicles.
Non-motorcycle vehicle registration plates starting with “MV” were not issued by the government after the issue of vehicle registration plates starting with “MU”, due to the possible confusion between “MV” and “MU” potentially affecting law enforcement and other government entities.
The bureau decided to issue non-motorcycle vehicle registration plates starting with “AA” after registration plates beginning with “MZ” had been used up – which was the case over recent weeks.
According to previous reports, over recent years vehicle registration plates with a second Western alphabet letter after the “M” letter had been used up every 12 to 15 months.
According to the bureau, registration plate “AA-88-88” garnered the highest bid with a hammer price of MOP 1,116,744. A total of 12 vehicle owners bid for “AA-88-88”, whose initial asking price was MOP 250,000.
Registration plate “AA-44-44”, which had an asking price of MOP 60,000, received the highest number of bids, 41 in total. The plate went to the winning bidder for MOP 265,767.
According to the bureau, the 550 vehicle registration plates put up for auction comprised five under the category “A” with an asking price of MOP 250,000, 12 under the category “B” with an asking price of MOP 200,000, 53 under the category “C” with an asking price of MOP 120,000, and 480 under the category “D” with an asking price of MOP 60,000, The Macau Post Daily reported.
