Union government has on Saturday introduced new vehicle registration series with the view of pouring hassle-free transportations between the states. It aims to ease the burden of vehicle owners from the process of re-registering their vehicles when they move from one state to another state or Union territory.

The new system goes by the name of Bharat Series (BH) and in the notification, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said on Saturday that it has introduced a new registration mark for new vehicles. The Ministry has said that a vehicle with a BH mark will not require a new registration mark if the owner shifts from one state to another. It has also stated that the facility will be available on a voluntary basis to Defence personnel.

Employees of the Union and State governments, and Central and State Public Sector Units will also be able to avail of this service so are the employees attached to the private sector companies, which have their offices in four or more states or union territories. So, let's take a look at how this BH system will help you and how you can apply. The BH comes in a fashion of a National Permit that is familiar with the trucks and cargo carriages.

However, such a tag of National Permit won't be provided to every vehicle that is being owned by an individual including cars and two-wheelers. According to the current norms, a person can keep and drive his vehicle in a state where it was not registered for a certain period of time, unlike for trucks. In case of using the vehicle in a state where it was not registered, a person is allowed to keep the vehicle for a maximum of 12 months in that state and after this stipulated deadline, he or she must re-register their vehicles in the state where they presently live. 

For example, if you have your vehicle registered in Tamil Nadu and living in Kerala for 12 months, you have to re-register your vehicle in Kerala and you could face a hindrance in taking the vehicle back to Tamil Nadu, where you have to do a fresh registration again. This BH registration number aims to eliminate this hassle of registration and help you to travel across the states and union territories without doing any re-registration.

According to the Union Ministry of Roadways, the format of the BH series registration mark would be YY BH #### XX. YY refers to the year of first registration, BH is a code of Bharat Series, #### is the randomized four-digit number, and XX are two alphabets. If a vehicle carries the BH number, it can evade going under new registration when the owner of the vehicle shifts from one state to another and the BH number will be generated randomly through the portal. The reports say that the BH series is the latest reform introduced by the Union Ministry in line with 'Fastag' and HSRP (High-Security Registration Plates).

According to the notification, if a person registers his vehicle in the Bharat Series, he or she will have to pay Motor Vehicle Tax of 8 per cent for the vehicles costing up to Rs 10 lakh, 10 per cent for the vehicles costing between Rs 10-20 lakh, and 12 per cent for the vehicles that cost above Rs 20 lakh. The motor vehicle tax will be levied electronically when the vehicle carries the BH registration mark. The Ministry has said that two per cent additional tax will have to be paid for diesel vehicles, while there can be a relief of two per cent in vehicle tax on electric vehicles.