The union Road Transport & Highways Ministry has introduced a new series of vehicle registration which will be valid in the entire country. The new series BH (Bharat series) will mean that vehicle owners will not have to change the registration of their vehicles when they move from one state to another.
The vehicles registered under this regime will have the letters BH on the registration plate instead of two letters denoting the state where it was registered. This also introduces a new element to the registration number, the year when the vehicle was first registered. The new registration number format under the Bharat series will be YY BH #### XX, where YY is the year of first registration, BH for Bharat Series, #### means the 4-digit numerical number, and XX stands for alphabets AA to ZZ.
A statement issued by the ministry said that the new vehicle registration system has been introduced for the benefit of people who need to relocate to different states due to job transfers. At present, when people shift their vehicles to a different state, they need to transfer the registration of the vehicle withing 12 months of the relocation, according to the section 47 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. A person is allowed to keep a vehicle for a maximum of 12 months in any state other than the state where it is registered, and they need to register it in the new state within the expire of 12 months.
This process of re-registering a vehicle in a different state is a cumbersome process, as the vehicle owners need to obtain a No Objection Certificate from the parent state, get the vehicle registered in the new state after paying the road tax, and get the refund of already paid road tax from the previous state in a pro-rata basis. This provision to get refund from the parent State on pro-rata basis is a very cumbersome process and varies from one State to another, the ministry added.
Therefore, in order to facilitate seamless transfer of vehicles from state to state, the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has introduced a new registration mark for new vehicles, the “Bharat series (BH-series)”.
At present, this vehicle registration facility under BH series will be available on a voluntary basis to Defence personnel, employees of central government and state governments, employees of central and state PSUs, and private sector companies/organizations, which have their offices in four or more states/union territories. Motor vehicle tax for two years, or in multiple of two years, will be collected for registrations. After completion of the fourteenth year, the motor vehicle tax shall be levied annually, which shall be half of the amount which was charged earlier for that vehicle.
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In the new “BH” series regime, the road tax will be 8% for vehicles costing up to Rs 10 lakh, 10% for vehicles costing between Rs 10-20 lakh and 12% for vehicles costing over Rs 20 lakh. There will be 2% extra charge for diesel vehicles, and the tax for electric vehicles will be 2% less.
