KUALA LUMPUR: The Kuala Lumpur Road Transport Department (JPJ) collected RM237,000 from its first public auction of the year, involving 124 seized vehicles.

Its director Hamidi Adam said of the 124 vehicles auctioned, 108 were roadworthy, 16 were unroadworthy (scrap), and six were cloned vehicles.

“We successfully auctioned off all the listed vehicles, with the highest bid received being RM27,000 for a Mitsubishi Canter tipper truck, while the lowest bid was just RM200 for a scrap Modenas motorcycle,” he told reporters after the auction session here today.

He said the vehicles had been seized through various JPJ enforcement operations involving offences including not having road tax and insurance.

“If the owners fail to claim the seized vehicles within three months, we will bring the case to court to initiate forfeiture proceedings before the vehicles are auctioned off,” he added.

Elaborating further, Hamidi said this type of auction is held twice a year, and the response this time was considered encouraging even though only 85 bidders participated, less than the target of 100.

An additional RM8,500 was collected from the sale of RM100 booklets required for all attending bidders, bringing the total revenue to RM245,500.

He did not rule out the possibility of capping the number of participants in future auctions due to space constraints but said efforts are underway to secure a larger venue to provide greater comfort for both bidders and staff.

“At present, our public auctions are conducted manually but, in the future, we are planning to introduce an online bidding system under the supervision of the JPJ headquarters,” he said.