Qatar’s MOI to hold special license plate auction this week

  • Shabina S. Khatri and Riham Sheble
    • Photo for illustrative purposes only.
    Photo for illustrative purposes only.

    The Ministry of Interior’s fifth special license plate number auction will kick off at noon tomorrow, Nov. 22.

    The auction runs through 10pm on Thursday, Nov. 24, and will be conducted via the government’s Metrash 2 app. It is open to anyone with a Qatar ID.

    Bidding for each of the 22 license plates start at QR100,000 ($27,500), and participants must first put down a deposit of QR20,000 ($5,500).

    If the successful bidders don’t pay for their purchase within two days, they lose the license plate number and their deposit, the MOI said on Twitter.

    Vanity plates are a big business in Qatar. Just two months ago, a government auction of 25 license plates yielded some QR17 million.

    And earlier this year, a private license plate auction netted QR15 million.

    Thoughts?