Deputy Transport Minister Aziz Kaprawi said all vehicle number plates in Putrajaya would have “F” as the prefix while “V” is assigned to Kuala Lumpur.

He said the ministry decided on the change after a request from Putrajaya Corporation.

“’F’ means Federal. Starting June 1, ‘F’ will be the new prefix for vehicle registration plates in Putrajaya.

“For Kuala Lumpur, JPJ will introduce ‘V’. This is likely to happen after Putrajaya, in order to make it easier for the public and to encourage car owners to bid for fancy numbers (two digit) and popular numbers (four digit),” he said.

Aziz said the public preferred the format for vehicle registration numbers to have a simple prefix of one to three letters, followed by the one- to four-digit numbers, as had been the case previously.

The current algorithm in Kuala Lumpur that started off with “W 1 A” in September 2013 will be phased off in stages beginning mid-July, according to JPJ director-general Ismail Ahmad.

“This change is based on a huge decline in bidding received for the current Kuala Lumpur registration plate sequence. So I hope with the ‘V’ prefix, it will get people excited,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby.

He said JPJ’s revenue in the capital city had dropped from RM10 million to RM6 million in terms of bidding so far received for the current Kuala Lumpur vehicle registration sequence.

For Putrajaya, Aziz said “F” was chosen instead of a suggestion by Putrajaya Corporation to use “Putrajaya”, as it was “too long” to fit in the registration plate.

Commenting further, Aziz expected the bidding craze to start with the “F 1” registration plate.

“I think many Ferrari owners will be queuing up to bid (in Putrajaya) for the single alphabet of ‘F’ (registration plate),” he said.