Government Stops Issuing Vehicle Registration Number If Total of Digits is 8

In Tamilnadu state, transport authorities have stopped issuing those registration numbers for vehicles whose four digits have a total of 8 like 5435, 2204 etc. However, this ban is not official as no specific orders have been issued by the government nor there is any rule prescribing this as official method.  This interesting step has been taken by the state government to curb the corruption in the Transport Department of this state.

In Tamilnadu, people consider number 8 as unlucky like 13 in some western countries. A majority of the people always avoided registration numbers whose total was 8 while applying for a registration number for their newly purchased vehicle. So, some of the greedy officials at the transport authority were indulging in corruption by offering the vehicle owners a vehicle number that was not unlucky, i.e. whose four digits did not have a total of 8.  In fact, there were some cases where transport officials intentionally offered only these so called unlucky numbers so that the vehicle owner was forced to shell out some money for avoiding these numbers.

Now, to avoid these cases, Transport Department has made an unofficial policy not to issue any of these unlucky registration numbers.  Those still interested in getting such a number can pay a premium and choose the number.