DUSHANBE, January 16, 2012, Asia-Plus — A special operation by police officers has led to the arrest of producer of counterfeit so-called “golden” license plates.
An official source at the Ministry of Interior (MoI) says 22-year-old student from Tajik National University Murodali Nematov was arrested at the Avtoremzavod (auto repair plant) plant for producing the counterfeit license plates.
“The preliminary investigation has established that Murodali Nematov have produced and sold the following counterfeit license plates: AH 7777 RT 01; EM 0007 RT 01; VR 0001 RT 01; and VR 7000 RT 01,” the source said.
According to him, the counterfeit license plate AH 7777 RT 01 was used for transportation of a consignment of narcotic drug weighing more than 110 kilograms.
As it had been reported earlier, the law enforcement authorities received the confidential order from above at the end of last week to remove the so-called “golden” number plates 8888 and 7777 belonging to immediate relatives of the first persons of the country.
The decision is reportedly connected with the fact that permissiveness of owners of the “golden” number plates on the roads has displeased citizens. Some experts, however, doubt that with replacement of the number plates VIPs and their immediate relatives and retinue will bear themselves well on the roads.
Numbers are important in Tajikistan, where the right one can earn you a salute from the country”s traffic policemen.
We will recall that the Tajik authorities began selling vanity license plates in March 2010. The first auction in Tajikistan, selling “cool” license plates for cars, set the record: “0100” was sold for 40,000 somoni or $9100 ($1=4.36 somoni). “0707” was sold for 6500 somoni, while “0202” and “0808” were sold for 3600 somoni each.
In all, sixteen number plate auctions have been held in Tajikistan since March 2010. The last auction was held in November 2011.
52 vanity license plates for cars were sold at the last number plate auction. In all, 300 number plates were put on the auction and the opening bid for each of the number plates was set at 270.00 somoni (equivalent to some 56.00 U.S. dollars). It is to be noted that an official price of the number plate is now 90.00 somoni (19.00 US dollars). “0101” was sold for 10,000 somoni or 2,100 US dollars and “1000” was sold for 8,000 somoni (US$1,680). Prices of ten other license plates fluctuated from 500.00 to 1,000 US dollars, while “0066” and “2200” were sold for 350 somoni or US$73.00 each.
311 vanity number plates for a total amount of 313,178 somoni (some US$66,000) were sold in 2010 and 505 “cool” license plates for a total amount of 540,239 somoni (some US$113,734) were sold last year.
