The BH registration mark can be availed of by defence personnel and employees of Central/State governments, PSUs and select private firms
The Bharat (BH) series registration mark has been introduced by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways for new vehicles.
According to the ministry, this scheme will facilitate seamless transfer of personal vehicles from one State or Union Territory (UT) to another, when the owner of the automobile makes the shift, without the need for reassignment of registration mark.
Until now, when a person moves to from 1 State or UT to another with a personal vehicle, he or she has to re-register the vehicle in the new State/UT within 12 months’ time.
Re-registration for a passenger vehicle requires the owner to obtain a ‘No Objection Certificate’ from the parent State for assignment of a new registration mark in another State.
The new registration mark will be assigned at the new State after the road tax on pro rata basis is paid. Then, the vehicle owner can apply for a refund of the road tax in the parent State.
Admitting that the provision to get refund from the parent State is a very cumbersome process, the Road Transport Ministry said it is 1 of the pain points in the vehicle registration process.
This is where the BH registration mark comes into play. Vehicles bearing the BH registration mark need not be re-registered and the motor vehicle tax will be levied for 2 years or in multiples of 2 for the first 14 years. From then on, the motor vehicle tax will be halved and will be levied annually.
At present, the BH registration mark can only be availed of, on a voluntary basis, by defence personnel, employees of Central and State governments, employees of Central/State Public Sector Undertakings and employees of private firms that have offices in 4 or more States or Union Territories.
The format of the BH-series registration mark is – YY BH #### XX in which YY is the year of first registration, BH the code for Bharat Series, #### is for numbers between 0000 and 9999 (randomised), while XX are alphabets (AA to ZZ).
