Thailand’s Department of Land Transport (DLT) has earned 61 million baht (S$2.3 million) by auctioning off 49 special licence plates that display auspicious words like “success” and “windfall”.
Mr Jirut Wisaljit, DLT director-general, said the auction on Aug 31 drew interest from many motorists, and the department successfully sold 49 licence plates with Thai words believed to make the owners lucky or successful.
Licence plates in Thailand display a combination of Thai letters and numbers, but the department has created special licence plates with “lucky” Thai words to raise cash for the Road Safety Fund, which carries out campaigns to make Thailand’s roads safer.
The fund also pays for wheelchairs or life-supporting tools for people injured in road accidents, Mr Jirut said.
This was the eighth auction of special licence plates held by the DLT. The top five licence plates that earned the most in the auction were:
- Samret 1 (Success 1): Sold for 5.04 million baht after 212 bids
- Sabay 1 (Comfort 1): 3.04 million baht
- Munkong 1 (Security 1): 3.04 million baht
- Saksit 1 (Sacred 1): 3.02 million baht
- Larp 8888 (Windfall 8888): 2.31 million baht
Mr Jirut added that several other licence plates went for more than one million baht each, including Sati 9999 (Conscience 9999), which was sold for 1.98 million baht; Mungkorn 5 (Dragon 5), for 1.7 million baht; and Kusol 9999 (Merit 9999), for 1.53 million baht.
Mr Jirut said these special plates were specially designed and were not embossed like normal licence plates. He added that they can be transferred or inherited. THE NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
