THREE months ago, rickshaw driver Imran Butt took up an offer that would pay him Rs1,000 every week. All he had to do was replace the tattered plastic covering his vehicle with a quality hood with a certain brand’s advertisement on it, and just drive around the city, which he was already doing. Why would he mind? The payment abruptly dried up a month later, but by then, Butt had received Rs4,000 as promised.

Around the same time, Hassan, a college student, decided to get his car wrapped with a striking advertisement and in return receive a handsome amount for just driving around, which he did quite a lot any way between home and college. He was paid between Rs11,000 and Rs14,000 for around two months, after which he was told the deal was off.

Neither Butt, nor Hassan, had to make any extra effort for the extra money, beyond letting their respective vehicles be covered with ads. This was possible through a relatively new local start-up called Ticket Kataao.

The venture crowd sources private vehicles and uses them for commercial — ie, advertisement — purposes. All you have to do is register with Ticket Kataoo, get your car covered (not painted) with an advertisement, drive around at least 30km a day, preferably in crowded areas, and you can earn a maximum of Rs20,000 a month.

Hassan did not have an income but he did have a car. “I found out about this venture through Facebook and decided to make some pocket money,” he says. “I was already clocking around 50km daily between home, college, and errands. Besides making money, my car looked good too. I got paid more than my fuel expenses.”

The model for rickshaws doesn’t include a mileage requirement since they’re already going all over, but a rickshaw driver can make between Rs4,000 and Rs5,000 a month if he gets his ride wrapped. The biggest benefit for Butt, besides the extra cash, was the colourful, new hood he got for his rickshaw, which he couldn’t afford otherwise.

What started towards the end of 2014 with plans for, first, a cinema ticketing and then a ride-sharing start-up, ended up as Ticket Kataao: a mass-scale advertising, shared economy venture. And by the end of 2015, in less than a week through a couple of online articles, they had 3,000 people on board from across Pakistan. Subsequently, they also managed to attract 50,000 rickshaws.

“Our first break was with one of the two ride-hailing services that were introducing their rickshaws at that time. They had some difficulty in getting rickshaw drivers and contacted us. We got them over 400 rickshaws in six days, branded them and paid the drivers Rs4,000 for a month’s campaign,” recalls Talha Zaheer, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Ticket Kataao.

Mass vehicular advertising is already an established phenomenon in the developed world. But for Pakistan, the idea is new, and promising. This model, if turned into an industry, Zaheer says, has the potential to add approximately a billion rupees annually to the exchequer — assuming 10,000 cars are branded and on the roads for 12 months straight.

But why did payments to both Butt and Hassan stop? Because, well, heavy taxation. Currently, the start-up pays GST, an advertising fee of Rs55,000 and withholding tax for advertising services it renders through private vehicles. This totals to a staggering amount per car and wasn’t viable because a brand commits a certain amount only to any category of advertisement it utilises.

Taxation for Ticket Kataao became an issue around the same time that the two foreign ride-hailing services were warned of bans if they did not pay the required taxes. In the absence of a category for private cars used for commercial purposes, all three firms found themselves in the same boat. Ticket Kataao is charged for the cars it brands the same amount as the advertisement fee, Rs55,000, as a float; their services can’t be categorised any other way for now.

By contrast, a public vehicle is charged around Rs2,000 if the entire car is wrapped. And converting a private vehicle to public takes around Rs1,500 annually, plus vetting of the vehicle and fitness of the driver, and the number plate turning from white to yellow.

The foreign companies approached the provincial authorities and currently, talks are under way for new legislation covering the usage of private vehicles for commercial purposes.

“If the advertisement fee is slashed to the same level as that charged on a public car — Rs2,000 — across the country, the exchequer makes a billion rupees a year from just GST, but only if this promising industry is allowed to flourish. The current tax system doesn’t allow it to. We urge the authorities, Dr Umar Saif [who is vice-chancellor of the Information Technology University and is a senior-member of the Punjab cabinet], the chief minister and everyone concerned to consider our start-up also in the legislation process being drawn up for the ride-hailing services, and add an advertising clause for private vehicles to it, so thousands of people can earn some extra money,” exclaims Zaheer.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2017