LAHORE: Pakistan Post Office and Punjab Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control department on Wednesday signed an agreement for delivery of number plates, smart cards and registration documents of vehicles at the clients’ doorstep all over the country.

Punjab Postmaster General (PMG) Khwaja Imran Raza and Excise Director General Rizwan Akram Sherwani signed the agreement. Punjab Minister for Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control Department Raja Basharat was also present.

Mr Raza says the agreement was being implemented under the directions of the federal cabinet that all government departments should use the Pakistan Post services for transmission and delivery of mail.

He says the agreement will be a prototype for other public sector organisations in terms of better rates and service delivery.

As many as five million households will benefit from the agreement and the Pakistan Post will earn approximately Rs400 million annual revenue, he adds.

The PMG says the Pakistan Post will provide home delivery service to the customers at cheaper rates as compared to the charges of private courier companies.

He says earlier TCS had this contract but was restricted to deliver the articles only to urban centres with higher service charges. Now the Pakistan Post has signed a contract of delivery of number plates, smart cards and registration documents of vehicles to rural areas as well, based on postal addresses, he adds.

He highlighted various initiatives, including digitalisation, being taken by the Pakistan Post in order to meet the new challenges and to come up to the expectations of its clients and customers.He also mentioned other features of the agreement, including lower rates, doorstep delivery for all vehicle owners irrespective of the area, online tracking facility through software connectivity with MVRA, SMS confirmation on delivery of articles, a dedicated helpline for inquiries and specialised booking cells for excise booking across Punjab.

Mr Raza says a backlog of around three million pending articles will be cleared within a period of one year, apart from delivery of vehicle-related articles pertaining to around 5,000 fresh registration cases on a daily basis.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2022