Personalised plate: Commissioner for Transport Robert Footman says motorists will have more choice in selecting their own vehicle registration number by year-end.

A scheme offering motorists more choice in selecting their own vehicle registration number to boost Government revenue will be in place by year-end.

The Personalised Vehicle Registration Mark Scheme, announced by the Financial Secretary Henry Tang in the 2004-05 Budget yesterday, has the following features:

* A personalised vehicle registration mark which can be any combination of letters and numbers up to eight characters provided it does not duplicate existing numbers. Any space will be counted as one of the eight permitted characters;

* Applicants will be required to indicate the display of the personalised vehicle registration mark combination on an illustrative number plate in the application form. They will also be required to pay a deposit; and,

* Personalised vehicle registration mark applications will be subject to vetting to ensure any offensive or otherwise inappropriate ones can be screened out. Approved registration marks will be publicised in local newspapers and allocated through sale by auction. The number will be allocated for a fixed period.

Deposit, opening price levels being considered

Commissioner for Transport Robert Footman said details of the scheme, including the deposit and opening price for personalised vehicle registration marks, are being developed.

Necessary legislative amendments will be tabled at the Legislative Council in due course, and details of the scheme and application procedures will be announced before its implementation.

At present, vehicle owners are allocated a vehicle registration number upon registration of a vehicle or they can get a number of their own preference through auction.

The existing numbers are of fixed patterns with not more than six characters, which are either all numbers without a prefix or with one or two letters as a prefix, followed by not more than four numbers.