Fancy number plate business booming
Manama : Businesses dealing in fancy number plates are thriving after the authorities reportedly eased regulations on sale and purchase.
Sale of fancy number plates has seen a huge increase in the past one month, according to dealers operating in the market. Many of the dealers operate their businesses online through social media channels while others work out of their offices. The increase in demand has opened up such businesses “highly lucrative”, the dealers said.
The authorities have eased the sale and purchase of number plates, the dealers told DT News.
“Earlier, the number plates were mainly tied to the car that was purchased and there were no proper guidelines or regulations for those who wished to own the number plate independently. So for those who wished to buy and sell number plates had to go through a lot of unnecessary procedures and we had to take special permissions to do so. But now since the changes that were enforced a month ago, we can own the number-plate indefinitely. More importantly there are minimal formalities associated with it and this has made life much easier for us,” said Abdallah, owner of an Instagram business ‘KingofNumbers’.
Abdallah said he also has an office but most of the business are done online and at the General Directorate of Traffic premises. “I negotiate with my clients over the phone and the money is exchanged at General Directorate of Traffic premises,” he said.
“In the past one month there has certainly been an increase in the amount of demand. Everyday I am making sales and business is off the carts. This is a highly lucrative business right now because there aren’t many costs involved in maintaining the business and almost anyone can do it,” he said.
Ibrahim, owner of Instagram business ‘numbers_cars’ said that the business is only expected to boom.
“With the easing of regulations, it has become easy and convenient for us and the buyers. Business has increased over the past month and it looks very positive at the moment,” he said, adding, “the recently held number plate auction was interesting, since it was a high profile event it attracted a lot of attention towards the number plate business,” he said.
It is not just the demand, but also the competition that has increased, said Ahmed, another seller. “There are many of us who have been doing this for a long time. However, recently many sellers have come up, especially online, with hopes of earning some quick money. There are countless number of Instagram accounts dedicated to this business, “ he said.
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