In order to facilitate a convenient transfer of personal vehicles across states, the Road Transport Ministry has introduced a new registration number for the new vehicle ‘Bharat Series (BH-series). This new vehicle registration regime does not require the vehicle owners to re-register their vehicles while moving from one state or union territory to another state or union territory.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) said in a statement, ‘This vehicle registration facility under “Bharat series (BH-series)” will be available voluntarily to defense personnel, employees of central government/ State government/ central/state public sector undertakings and private companies/ organizations, which have their offices in four or more States/union territories.’

A vehicle having this registration mark shall not require a new registration mark upon moving from one state to another. This step taken by the government is seen as a citizen-centric step to promote mobility. 

Under section 47 of the Motor vehicle Act 1988, a person is allowed to keep the vehicle for not more than 12 months in any state other than the parent state instead he has to get a new registration with a new state.

It is quite clear that how inconvenient this process has been until now for Government and private sector employees as they have to relocate from one state to another state. Apart from this, the registration process includes obtaining a No Objection certificate from the parent state, assigning of new registration mark from the new state after the payment of road tax on a pro-rata basis, and the refund of the road tax in the parent state on pro-rata basis. With the introduction of a new registration mark valid across the country, moving across the country will be a lot easier.

Here are the details of the registration mark for the Bharat series:

YY BH #### XX

YY stands for Year of first registration,

BH is the code for Bharat Series,

#### 0000 to 9999 Number

XX Alphabets (AA to ZZ)

Benefits of the new registration mark:

• Under this new series, the vehicles are not required to be re-registered after they are moved to a new state.
• The process of registration is available online, the vehicle owner doesn’t have to visit RTO.
• The motor vehicle tax will be levied for two years or in multiple of two years. After fourteen years have completed, the tax shall be levied annually which will be half of the amount, charged earlier for the vehicle.

 Road Tax under the new registration regime will be in these slabs:

1. 8% for vehicles costing up to 10 lakhs.
2. 10% for vehicles costing up to 10-20 lakhs.
3. 12% for vehicles costing over 20 lakhs.
4. 2% extra charge for diesel vehicles.
5. 2% less charge for electric vehicles.

The introduction of a new vehicle registration mark will bring a massive transformation in terms of convenience and time-saving processes. People who have transferable jobs no longer have to be worried about moving their vehicle to a new state from the state where it was bought.