MC Explains | What are BH number plates? How does one apply for them?

The BH or Bharat series number plates were originally introduced by the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways (MoRTH) as a means to save government officials the hassle of re-registering their vehicles in the new state they’ve been transferred to. Its eligibility criteria was later broadened, to include new car buyers, who were looking to transfer to another state in the not-too-distant future.

As of today, however, the BH plate rule applies to existing car buyers as well. According to a new draft notification postponed by MoRTH, vehicles with standard registration can now be converted to BH series registration marks, once you’ve paid the necessary tax, of course.

According to the same notification, the applicant can now submit their application for a change of registration from their place of work or home. In case of private sector employees, a Working Certificate has to be produced, proving that you’re shifting cities for occupational reasons, following which you can re-register your vehicle to the pan-Indian BH registration. This means that after acquiring BH registration, you can hold on to the same registration plates regardless of which part of the country you travel to.

In the span of a year, the BH scheme has gone from being extended to government officials with frequent transfers to one with 20,000 registered cars across 24 states and UTs, according to Times of India.

The Ministry has also stated that the scheme has been introduced to enable more and more working professionals to relocate in a hassle-free manner. The amendments to the Central Motor Vehicle act, however, do not reflect on the website at the moment, as BH registration for private sector workers is still limited to new car buyers only. Of course, the scheme only applies to private and not commercial vehicles.

The website also states that the BH re-registration/registration tax for EVs will be lower by 2% and higher by the same amount for diesel vehicles. Approval of the BH-series application will have to be done at local RTO corresponding with the vehicle’s current registration.