GOVERNMENT is considering reducing the cost of number plates from $160 to $125 a part of promoting ease of doing business, Parliament was told recently.
BY VENERANDA LANGA
The announcement was made by Transport deputy minister Michael Madanha last Wednesday after Nketa MP Phelela Masuku asked him in the National Assembly to explain why the cost of number plates was high, considering the cheap material used to manufacture them.
“My ministry, in consultation with the Finance and Economic Development ministry, is more than prepared to make some concessionary reductions, and at the moment, we already have a draft proposal paper where we have proposed a reduction in the number plate user fees, given the fact that the last downward review was made in 2009,” Madanha said.
“In that draft paper, we see opportunities to reduce the user fee charge for motor vehicle number plates to $125 and that of trailers to $105.”
Madanha said government was also considering a reduction in the replacement cost for a damaged or lost number plate in respect of number plates for public service vehicles and private vehicles from the current $160 and $140 to $90 and $75 respectively.
“It is our considered view that the proposed downward reviews in number plate user charges will contribute in a small way towards government policy on ease of doing business,” he said.
“It is not cheap to produce the current motor vehicle number plate nor is it made from cheap material. It costs us about $100 to produce a set of vehicle registration documents, that is, front and rear number plates, the registration book, and the third number plate for a motor vehicle.”
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Madanha said the material used in making plates was high quality aluminium.
“In addition, the Zimbabwe motor vehicle number plates, unlike the majority that are found in the region, are embedded with a number of security features in order to avert the problem of use of clone number plates by criminals and other such persons who may choose not to comply with vehicle registration legislation,” he said.
Madanha said government insists that lost number plates must be replaced with a new set for security reasons “We would like to say that when you lose one number plate, definitely you have to apply for a new set of number plates because of the security features that are there. It is a security-embedded number plate.”
