GUJRAT, March 1: The National Bank Of Pakistan (NBP), Bhimber Road Branch, has been charging the waived immigration welfare fund (IWF) from passport seekers while accepting challan forms, it is learnt on Friday.

An official source, on the condition of anonymity, told Dawn that the in charge of the local regional passport office had issued a circular imposing restriction on collection of immigration welfare fund of Re1 per challan form.

Despite receiving directives, the bank branch had for the last two weeks been charging the fund from applicants, he alleged.

According to the rules, he said, the NBP could charge Rs1,502 for ordinary cases and Rs4,002 for urgent forms, including Rs2 as bank charges, adding it was charging Rs1,505 and Rs4,005, respectively.

He alleged the bank had been receiving more than 10,000 challan forms every month and thus earning Rs20,000 from the passport seekers.

The local passport office had issued around Rs0.6 million passports during the last five years and the NBP might have earned illegal gratification to the tune of more than Rs1 million during the period, he said.

This correspondent visited local passport office where almost all the applicant present there confirmed that the branch had charged Rs1,505 and Rs4,005 from them. This correspondent also witnessed a man deployed in NBP charging Rs1,505 from one Shakoor of Karimpura locality, Lalamusa, on Feb 28, 2002.