Govt. decides to do away with provincial letters on licence plates

Cabinet this week approved removing letters that denote the residential province of vehicle owners from licence plates in an effort to reduce backlogs during sales. 

Letters to identify provinces are added to the number plate when registering vehicles to simplify vehicular emission tests and annual revenue licence issuance, the Government Information Department said in a statement.

“However, both the customers as well as the Department of Motor Traffic have to encounter many difficulties since the number plates have to be changed at each instance the right of ownership of the vehicles are transferred between provinces,” the statement added.

Since a unique number is issued to each registered vehicle at its registration, the identity of each vehicle can be easily recognised across the departmental data base. Considering this, the Cabinet of Ministers issued approval to the resolution submitted by Transport Minister Gamini Lokuge to remove provincial letters at issuance of vehicle number plates.