Personalised Registration Number Plates
State government has announced new vehicle registration rates regime.The new regime ostensibly is being implemented to address the problems allegedly posed by improperly registered vehicles in Lagos metropolis. However, the new and outrageous rates for registration that would become applicable to different categories of vehicles in the state underscore the real strategic objective of introducing the new registration regime: revenue generation. Under the new regime, registration of number plates of cars will cost N32, 200, Sport Utility Vehicle (SUVs) and buses N35, 950 while registration of articulated vehicles will cost between N40, 950 and N46, 575!
THESE rates are clearly way off what the masses can afford. In present day Nigeria, it will be uncharitable for any one, least of all, a government to assume that owning any type of vehicle is a luxury that should be taxed. And it is rather surprising that even buses and articulated vehicles that are used for mass transit and mass movement of goods respectively are not spared the meteoric rise in the registration fees. If there must be an increase in number plates registration fees, should the increase be retrospective? Why should vehicle owners who obtained their number plates months or even years back be made to replace them at astronomical rates? If indeed the reason for introducing the new number plates is to correct the lapses observed in the ones issued earlier, then it should be at no cost at all to those who already have genuine number plates.
The Personalised registration number plates lottery under new rules aimed at easing chronic gridlock in the city, with 17,600 people given the green light to hit the packed roads.
Last fall, the state of Illinois began selling Chicago Blackhawks themed specialty personalised registration number plates, with Blackhawks colors and the famed Indian head logo.
Starting tomorrow, the state will do the same for the Cubs. For a fee (on top of whatever your regular personalised registration number plates fee is), you’ll get a similar-looking plate to the Blackhawks plate, except with Cubs colors and logos. Proceeds from this sale benefit Illinois schools.
The Sun-Times reports that this is particularly meaningful for Secretary of State Jesse White.
White was a speedy outfielder for five years in the Cubs’ minor league system in the 1960s; he stole around 30 bases a year, was rarely caught stealing, and rarely struck out. He played two years in Triple-A with Salt Lake City, then the Cubs’ affiliate, but never got even a cuppa coffee callup.
Personalised Registration Number Plates - Business Names
Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), Mildred Chisi is instigating investigations into alleged irregularities in the award of a tender for the production of new vehicle personalised registration number plates amid revelations that the price for the plates is inflated.
Motorists, forced to pay US$160 to change to the new personalised registration number plates, are complaining that they are being fleeced by the government.
Police have also started impounding vehicles with old number plates after the government said those that failed to meet the changeover deadline should park their vehicles until they comply with the directive.
Defiant motorists can be fined and their vehicles impounded.
The interest by CAG in the matter is likely to re-ignite debate on the way the issue of new number plates was handled and expose cases of corruption in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development, a document obtained by The Standard has revealed.
Chisi confirmed last week that she had received reports alleging some officials in the Ministry of Transport had a hand in ensuring that Southern Region Trading Company, reportedly run by a South African, received the tender for producing the personalised registration number plates.
Personalised Number Plate Search
