Software upgraded to stop bogus vehicle registration
By Muzaffar Qureshi
KARACHI, Sept 29: The facility for motor vehicle registration will be extended to all 26 district headquarters of the province after the completion of computerisation project launched by the ministry of excise and taxation.
Presently, the facility is only available in Karachi and major cities of the interior, said sources at the ministry on Saturday.
This online project, with the mainstream computer at the MVR head office at Civic Centre in Karachi, will facilitate vehicle owners in remote areas.
The ministry has also launched computerisation programmes for online collection of infrastructure cess and entertainment tax, hotel tax, excise duty and property tax from the district headquarters.
The project is aimed at providing tax payment facility at the doorstep of the people and businessmen in the interior, who have to travel to major cities for payment of taxes.
In Karachi, vehicle tax is collected through 11 branches of National Bank of Pakistan while there is a plan to add five more NBP branches in Karachi and Hyderabad each to collect the tax. This is in addition to the tax payment counters at the MVR head office at Civic Centre.
Meanwhile, the motor vehicle registration (MVR) department has upgraded its computer software to plug chances of corruption in the form of bogus registration.
Sources at the department said feeding of data of a particular vehicle into main computer directly has been stopped.
During a recent checking campaign the department impounded 214 vehicles and seized registration books of 2,357 vehicles of the total 10,762 vehicles checked during the campaign from May 28 to June 2 on serious violation of motor vehicle registration rules.
The total tax recovered from the defaulters amounted to Rs8.5 million while penalty generated another Rs100,000.
During the first two months of the current fiscal (July-Aug), the department collected over Rs375 million compared to Rs329 million in the same period last year marking a 14 per cent increase.
The total number of vehicles registered up to June 30, 2007: private vehicles 782,880; motorcycles 706,269 and commercial vehicles 219,704.
The number of vehicles registered during 2006-07 were private vehicles 68,547, commercial vehicles 8,177 and motorcycles 112,231 compared to private vehicles 60,550, commercial vehicles 14,007 and motor bikes 91,372 registered during 2005-06.
Meanwhile, Chairman Pakistan Motor Dealers Association H. M. Shahzad told Dawn that vehicle registration had improved a lot due to efforts made by the MVR directorate, but there are still grey areas. Ordinary people are harassed by the lower staff at the MVR in Karachi and their cases are delayed to demand ‘speed money’.
He disclosed that the ministry of excise and taxation has issued licenses to motor dealers on payment of Rs5,000 to facilitate them register vehicles without any hurdle.
About 300 locally assembled vehicles and 70 to 75 imported cars are daily registered by motor dealers.