KARACHI: The Sindh government has collected over Rs20 million for number plates over the last 10 months but it has yet to deliver them, much to the inconvenience of buyers of new vehicles.

According to car dealers, the conservative estimate is based on Rs500 per plate collected by the provincial government on registration of 200 vehicles daily on average in the last 300 days.

Car dealers have informed the Sindh Excise and Taxation Department that number plates were not being issued for vehicles being registered in Karachi of the series BCA onwards since August 2014. The last number plates issued were of BBZ. The running series is BDN.

All Pakistan Motor Dealers Association (APMDA) Chairman H.M. Shahzad in a letter to Sindh Minister Excise and Taxation said the tenders for supply of number plates were not being finalised by the ministry for various reasons. He requested the minister to immediately initiate an inquiry for the delay and finalise the tender.

The delay in delivery of number plates is not only causing inconvenience to the buyers of vehicles, but they are also facing harassment by the traffic police, he wrote. Sources said tenders by the Excise Department have not yet been advertised as the officials are negotiating their personal gains instead of taking note of the problems being faced by the citizens.

On advance tax on registration and transfer of vehicles, he said the matter has been addressed in the budget 2015-16, though the measures fell short of expectations and might not yield desired results.

In a letter to Finance Minster Ishaq Dar, the APMDA chairman said majority of the vehicle buyers were non-filers and they had not been given sufficient relief.

The procedure for registration for filers must also be simplified. On showing of NTN number, the registration authority should verify it from Federal Board of Revenue’s website and register the car immediately without any payment. This is because it was near impossible to get the money refunded from the income tax department later on, he said.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2015

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