Vehicle owners in Tamil Nadu seeking fancy or preferred registration numbers may soon face sharply higher costs, with the state government proposing a sweeping revision of charges — including a new premium category priced at up to ₹8 lakh for numbers in future registration series. The proposal, published in the Extraordinary Gazette on 19 June, forms part of a draft amendment to the Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, and marks the first major fee revision since 2012.

How the Current System Works

Under the existing framework, vehicle registration numbers are assigned randomly at the time of registration. Owners wishing to secure a specific number within 1,000 numbers of the running series may apply through the Regional Transport Office (RTO) by paying a prescribed flat fee. The proposed amendment seeks to replace this structure with a tiered, series-based and value-linked model.

Key Changes in the Proposed Fee Structure

The draft amendment proposes doubling the fee for preferred numbers in the current series and the next three upcoming series. Fees escalate steeply for numbers reserved further into the future: owners seeking numbers in the fifth to eighth future series would pay ₹1.2 lakh, rising to ₹2 lakh for the ninth and tenth future series, and ₹4 lakh for the eleventh and twelfth future series.

A newly introduced premium category covers registration numbers in the thirteenth and fourteenth future series, which would attract a fee of ₹8 lakh — making them the most expensive category under the proposed framework.

Value-Based Fees for Two-Wheelers and Imported Vehicles

The government has also proposed scrapping the existing flat-rate system for fancy numbers allotted through RTOs, replacing it with a value-based fee structure tied to the cost of the vehicle. For two-wheelers and three-wheelers, charges would range from ₹2,000 for vehicles priced up to ₹50,000 to ₹1 lakh for vehicles valued above ₹30 lakh.

Imported vehicles would also fall under a slab-based system, with fees ranging from ₹20,000 for those valued up to ₹4 lakh to ₹1.5 lakh for vehicles costing more than ₹50 lakh — a steep increase from the current range of ₹1,000 to ₹16,000.

Revenue and Regulatory Intent

The draft rules stipulate that state government approval will remain mandatory for allotting numbers from future series and government-reserved fancy numbers. The proposed changes are intended to generate additional revenue while bringing order to the growing demand for premium registration numbers across the state. Notably, this is the first structural overhaul of the fee regime in over a decade, signalling that the government views premium number allocation as a meaningful fiscal lever. The draft is open for public review before any formal notification.