LAHORE: Punjab excise and taxation department’s fresh move, offering motorists and motorcyclists having manual number plates the computerised ones has so far drawn a poor response as only less than 2,000 people have availed the facility in the first 40 days of the initiative.

The department had issued a circular to all its regional directorates on January 14, 2016 to launch a vigorous campaign for replacing the manual number plates with computerised ones and receive applications from vehicle owners for the purpose.

Sources in the department told Dawn on Tuesday that so far 3,000 people from across the province had applied for computerised number plates (CNPs) since Jan 14, and of them 1,918 had been issued the plates.

They said there were approximately 2.3 million vehicles and motorcycles carrying manual number plates in the province.

It is mandatory for all private and commercial vehicles bought after 2006 in Lahore district and 2009 in the rest of the districts to get standardised CNPs. The standardisation would help effective regulation of motor vehicle data, checking non-registration and token tax evasion and minimising security threats.

Sources said a series of public advertisements announcing launch of new CNPs for old vehicles also failed to attract a good number of vehicle owners.

They said the E&T department was also planning a meeting with the Punjab police chief and the capital city police officer to launch a province-wide crackdown against the non-complying vehicle owners.

Sources said the Integrated Command and Control Centre authorities had also recently directed the E&T high ups to not only start issuing CNPs but also ensure their standardisation.

The use of illegal personalised number-plates on motorcycles and cars has become a fashion, especially among youth.

Punjab E&T Director General Akram Ashraf Gondal, admitting that the initiative received a poor response, argued that it was because the department was still asking for voluntary replacement of number plates.

“So far we have not issuing mandatory CNPs to vehicles and rather facilitating the owners to come forward for improved tax compliance, genuine ownership and standardisation of NPs”, he said.

Gondal, however, admitted that capacity issues were restricting the department from going for forced issuance of CNPs, which might give “positive results”.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2016