Provincial letters to be removed from number plates

The English letters indicating the province on vehicle number plates will be removed when registering a new vehicle and transferring the ownership of a vehicle.

This will come into effect from January 01, 2023, the Commissioner-General of Motor Traffic Nishantha Anuruddha Weerasingha said addressing a media briefing today.

The letters to identify provinces are added to the number plates when registering vehicles to minimize the inconveniences at vehicular emission tests and annual revenue licence issuance.

However, both customers, as well as the Motor Traffic Department, have encountered many difficulties since the number plates have to be changed at each instance the right of the ownership of the vehicles are transferred between provinces.

Meanwhile, speaking on the demerit point system to be introduced for drivers, Mr. Weerasinghe stated that this initiative is expected to be implemented in the first quarter of 2023.

Accordingly, the proposed demerit point system will be forwarded to the Cabinet of Ministers for its approval after it is published in the government gazette in the first week of January.

The relevant points of the demerit points system will be deducted over traffic offences and it 24 such points are deducted, the driving license of the concerned driver will be suspended for a period of one year.

Following the end of the suspension period, the drivers will have to go through the procedure from the beginning to obtain the driving license once again, he said further, adding that this is intended to reduce the number of lives claimed in motor accidents.