Rs 10 lakh for a car number!

Jaspal Bhatti mocks the trend of fancy car numbers.

Funnyman Jaspal Bhatti is not amused with the trend for fancy car numbers in Punjabis and feels that the day is not far off when people will start taking loans to get the number of their choice.

“Well,people have desires and ambitions,but I must say that a man paying Rs 10 lakh for a car number did come as a surprise. If this trend continues,people may soon start taking loans from banks to have their preferred number,” Bhatti said.

A farmer-turn-realtor recently bid a whopping Rs 10 lakh to have VIP digit registration number for his SUV.

Many affluent Punjabis have in the past have spent big money to have preferred number for their vehicle,but Chandigarh-based N S Shergill outdid them by spending Rs 10 lakh to buy the preferred number for his Toyota Fortuner SUV whose cost was just double the price he paid for its registration number.

During an auction on Saturday,Shergill made the highest bid of Rs 10 lakh before the Chandigarh’s Registration and Licensing Authority for getting CH01-AC-0001 for his SUV.

Asked to comment on the craze for small digit number,particularly among the Punjabis,Bhatti says,”people think it is a status symbol”.

Bhatti,who himself has couple of cars bearing ‘1’ number,with Haryana registration,said,”In those days (80s and early 90s),one used to get such numbers by approaching politicians or top bureaucrats. I also got it in the same manner. For me,having 1 number for my car was a feeling that I wanted to be at the forefront in whatever I do in life”.

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“But when Government is earning huge revenue as people,they should also allow transfer of these numbers if one wants to sell them at some stage. Like property,one should be allowed to sell them in future at higher rates so that there could be some return on huge investments that one makes on purchasing these VIP numbers,” Bhatti said satirically.

Shergill,who owns farms in Kharar and Kurali and is also into real estate business,said his teacher-wife had told him to drop the idea of spending a huge amount reasoning that it would buy them another car,”but my heart said that I should have this number”.

Interestingly,Shergill says that he has taken a loan of Rs 18 lakh for his nearly Rs 20 lakh SUV.

The fad for such numbers is not new for Punjabis. Gursimran Walia,who owns a SUV with ‘0001’ registration number,that having small digit numbers for cars was a craze that had carried on to the third generation with him.

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“The craze started with my grandfather,who retired from Air Force and started his taxi business. He had a fleet of cars with ‘1’ series numbers and then later on my father also owned cars with this number and now I also have a vehicle with the same number,” says Walia.

Three years back,a man hailing from Ludhiana had paid Rs 15 lakh for a fancy mobile phone number at an auction that had been organised by a private service provider.