Govt introduces ‘BH-series’ registration mark to ease state-to-state vehicle transfer

New Delhi, Aug 28: The Road Transport & Highways Ministry has introduced a new series of vehicle registration which will be valid in the entire country. It said under the new series BH (Bharat series), that vehicle owners will not have to change the registration of their vehicles when they move from one state to another.

 

 

 

"Government has taken a host of citizen centric steps to facilitate mobility. An IT based solution for vehicle registration is one such effort. However, one of the pain points in the vehicle registration process that needed attention was re-registration of a vehicle while moving to another state," said the Ministry in a statement.

 

 

According to the Ministry, 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 for emplayment. 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.

 

 

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 the 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.