PUTRAJAYA (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - The special car registration number "Malaysia 1" has been bought with a record-shattering RM1,111,111 (S$370,685).

Malaysia's Transport Minister Anthony Loke says the bid, made by Johor-based firm Aldi International Sdn Bhd, has broken the record held by "V1", which was purchased for RM989,000 in 2016.

"The number of successful bids was 3,353, with the highest for a single number at RM1,111,111, for Malaysia 1.

"Through this exercise, the government has earned RM13.1mil. All of this money will go into the government's coffers," Mr Loke said.

The same company also successfully won the bids for "Malaysia 2" (RM422,000) and "Malaysia 4" (RM162,000), which were the fourth and seventh highest bids for the special Malaysia plates.

The third highest bid was RM501,500, for the number "Malaysia 99", which went to 99 Speed Mart Sdn Bhd, the owner of mini-market chain 99 Speedmart.

The most bids - 49 - were received for the number "Malaysia 8055". The number can be read as "Malaysia BOSS".

The winning bid for that plate was RM81,888.

Other numbers that drew a large number of bids included "Malaysia 100" (31 bids) and "Malaysia 1957" (29 bids).

Mr Loke said he placed a bid for "Malaysia 509", but was unsuccessful, as his RM1,509 bid was 11th highest, behind the winning bid of RM20,000.

"This shows that our government is transparent in number plate bidding, as even a minister can lose out," he said.

Even so-called "bad" numbers - "Malaysia 4444" and "Malaysia 444" - were sold out during the bidding period, for RM11,000 and RM25,000 respectively. In Chinese, the number four and the word "death" are homophones.

Mr Loke revealed that the previous government lost more than RM100 million in potential revenue by issuing special registration numbers to non-governmental bodies. The government would only receive RM1 million per series from previous bidding, he said.

"Let's say, one series of special plate numbers can collect about RM5 million. We have had over 30 special series before this. That is over RM100 million that could have gone to the government.

"Now, we will close this leakage and ensure all bidding goes directly into the government's coffers. Looking at the encouraging response to the Malaysia series, we will announce more special plates from time to time, as a means to increase government earnings," he said.

There are 6,645 numbers left in the Malaysia series that are still available, and the public can bid for them at Road Transport Department branches.

Only "Malaysia 2020" is not available for bidding as it has been reserved for Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's official car.