RAWALPINDI, March 22: The excise and taxation department fetched over Rs1.3 million by auctioning 100 vehicle registration numbers of RIZ series, a source said on Friday.

The highest price of Rs261,000 was paid by a woman buyer, Rizwana Chaudhry, for RIZ-1. The district Nazim Rawalpindi, Raja Tariq Kiani, also took part in the auction and paid Rs6,500 for RIZ-33, the source said.

This was a new auction record for selling the motor vehicles’ “golden registration numbers of Z series”. The previous record was Rs600,000, the source said.

“This was a wonderful achievement by the officials of the taxation department,” excise and taxation director Akram Ashraf Gondal said in his comments.

At the auction, Amjad Siddiq paid Rs2,4000 for RIZ-2, Raja Mohammad Rashid paid Rs31,000 for RIZ-3, Raja Amir paid Rs25,500 for RIZ-4, Haji Imdad paid Rs36,000 for RIZ-5, Tariq Saddique paid Rs60,000 for RIZ-6, Nazim Javaid paid Rs28,000 for RIZ-7, Sardar Aftab paid Rs16,000 for RIZ-8, Raja Amir paid Rs16,000 for RIZ-9, Mr Awais paid Rs18,000 for RIZ-10, Aftab Rafique paid Rs66,500 for RIZ-22, Raja Mushtaq paid Rs50,000 for RIZ-50, Malik Eshrat paid Rs21,000 for RIZ-99, Syed Mudasar paid Rs17,000 for RIZ-100, Raja Zafar Iqbal paid Rs12,000 for RIZ-111, Atif paid Rs8,000 for RIZ-222, Zaka Ullah paid Rs15,500 for RIZ- 333, Moshan Shah paid Rs5,500 for RIZ-444, Raja Farooq paid Rs16,000 for RIZ-555, Arif Siddique paid Rs5,500 for RIZ-666, Zahid Akhtar paid Rs7,000 for RIZ-777, Safdar Siddique paid Rs37,500 for RIZ-786, Raza Aslam Khan paid Rs20,000 for RIZ-999, Azhar Amin paid Rs11,000 for RIZ-1111, Munir Butt paid Rs5,200 for RIZ-3333, Mohammad Shakeel paid Rs5,200 for RIZ-5555, Amjad paid Rs3,500 for RIZ-63.

The auction was held at the excise and taxation office, Rawalpindi.