Tax free drive costs city heavy

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

ISLAMABAD, May 19: Vehicles registered with Islamabad`s excise and taxation department but plying elsewhere in the country lose the city administration Rs100 million in revenue every year.

“Several thousands owners of vehicles across the country have ICT number plates but they had never paid a single penny since registration with the city`s excise and taxation department,” a government official told Dawn .

Speaking on condition on anonymity, he estimated that around 300,000 vehicles bearing the capital city`s number plates were plying in the country.

The options for the Islamabad Capital Territory administration to make them pay the token fee were limited, he said, adding that the losses of the city`s excise department were increasing. “Such vehicles are sold and purchased in different parts of the country but their owners seldom visit the city to pay token fees.” He added that many vehicles have been registered with ICT two decades back.

The official said the capital administration has started issuing computerised number plates but the process of collecting token fee was still awaiting “computerisation”. He regretted that this financial lapse was yet to catch the attention of the senior administration officials.

“Several attempts have been made by the members of excise department to nab vehicles not paying token fee, but this is a very tiring and troublesome job. It involves a lot of time and effort.” He added that as the local administration was not much worried about collecting token fees, it was missing a huge revenue source as it did not have any plan to make owners pay token fee.

The official said mostly the lethargic attitude of the citizens keeps them away from paying the token fee.

“I missed the date for token fee last year because I was not in Islamabad,” Hasan Murtaza, who lives in Rawalpindi and owns a 1000cc Suzuki car with Islamabad number plate, told Dawn . “I had to pay the fee along with fine.”

Maintaining that the administration was very much aware of the problem, Deputy Commissioner Amir Ali Ahmed said, “We have already worked out a PC-I to overcome this issue.”

The ICT plans to paste a sticker on every vehicle with different colour coding for each year. “It will help excise and taxation department officials to spot vehicles moving without stickers, an indication that the owners have not paid token fee,” Mr Ali said.He hoped that it would lead to quick fee recovery. “Every vehicle with a registration number plate of the capital city will be in our taxation net,” the DC claimed. He said currently they were generating around Rs150 million annually through registration and token fees of registered vehicles.

He said Rs10 sticker would be pasted on the windscreen of the vehicles. “Besides stickers, we will also install cameras at the entry points of the city to identify vehicles plying without payment of token fee. These cameras will be linked with a central control system of the administration.”