The plate on your car lasts as long as its licence does. But the General Traffic Department’s system holds other plates whose life is counted in hours, issued to anyone taking a vehicle out of the country or bringing one in.
Export plates
If the vehicle is not licensed with traffic and carries metal plates, exporting it goes through customs directly.
If it was licensed previously, the road is longer: a valid insurance certificate with at least a month to run, a vehicle inspection, cancellation from the traffic computer system, handing the plates and the registration book to the relevant section, and then collecting the export plates.
Those plates are valid for a maximum of 48 hours. They come off when the vehicle leaves the country, and anyone who is late renews them and pays a fine.
A new vehicle passes straight from the importer to customs, because it is not registered, carries no plates, and has no file with traffic in the first place.
The fee is two dinars per plate.
Customs entry plates
Called “temporary customs” plates, they are granted with a temporary exemption from licensing in two cases and no others:
First: transit vehicles crossing the country that are not licensed in the country they came from — valid for a maximum of 48 hours.
Second: vehicles arriving through individual import that carry no plates from their own country — valid for one week, until licensing is completed.
The fee is 2.500 dinars per plate.
And the commercial plate
This one is not temporary, but it is not for individuals either. It is granted after an application on the prescribed form, payment of the fees and satisfaction of the conditions, with these attached: documents establishing the applicant’s identity, nationality, capacity and place of residence; an official document proving entry in the commercial register; the licence of the shop or factory; and an insurance policy covering accidents involving these vehicles.
The ministry’s page gives no fee for this plate.
The difference in one line
Forty-eight hours for anyone leaving and anyone passing through, a week for anyone who imported their car themselves. And in between, a fine.
Photo: a vehicle number plate. By Walser123, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
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