IPOH: The AKU 1305 (I am Boss) vehicle registration number may be the most popular but AKU 1 (I am First) is the most expensive in the AKU series.

While AKU 1305 has the most bid with 49 people interested, AKU 1 secured the highest bid which was made at RM207,898.

The AKU 1305 numbers resemble the Malay phrase "Aku Bos."

Perak Road Transport Department director Mohd Zawawi Zakaria (pic) said the highest bid for AKU 1305 was only at RM20,000.

"We thought the 'Boss' number plates, including 8055 and 805 would get the highest bid amount.

"We were quite surprised that it was not the case here," he told a press conference on Thursday.

The numbers available for registration are divided into four categories, including golden numbers (1 to 10), attractive numbers (11 to 19), repetitive numbers (such as 66, 777 or 9999) and popular numbers.

Bidding for golden numbers starts from RM10,000, attractive and repetitive numbers from RM2,000 upwards, while popular numbers begin from RM300.

Bidding for the AKU series closed on July 18.

The most expensive Perak registration by far is AKK 1, which was sold for RM288,000 last year.

Mohd Zawawi said for the AKU series, the tender applications received were about five times more than usual.

"We usually get between 500 and 600 applications for other number plates.

"For the AKU series, we received 3,315 applications," he said, adding that the total revenue collected from the series was about RM3.5mil.

"Only 3,076 applications were accepted with the rest rejected due to incomplete details or no payment received," he added.