were still pending and first he had to submit the life time token tax for its vehicle transfer. When he showed the invoice to Excise officer, he himself was surprised as the invoice was the same like the original with a hidden embossed government logo.
He said that when he informed the Director Motor Branch about the said fraud, he simply asked him to pay the token tax again as no one guided him to submit his token tax via excise agent. He said he had to pay life time token tax again while no action was taken by the E&T high-ups against that agent and the excise officer who issued the invoice from computer to agent.
Surprisingly, no data of these so-called agents working under the garb of E&T officials have been compiled by E&T Department and no one could file even a police complaint against these agents as they have been working without any legal licence or identity besides they also don’t have any fix place for makeshift offices.
A senior Excise officer, on condition of anonymity, told The News that if the E&T officials made a positive attempt in removal of agents, then it could easily be removed from E&T Department but the commission on each file is the basic reason for agents’ presence.
Talking to The News, a visitor namely Faizan Qazi, said that he came here for the transfer of his vehicle which he recently sold to his friend. He said he was just five minutes late while the motor branch computer section timings was over and the staff refused to take his file. But the same staff was receiving the files from other visitors who came along with agents. He said he tried to tell this scribe to higher officials but their peon didn’t allow them to get in their offices.
When contacted, Secretary E&T Punjab Ali Tahir, who recently took charge of E&T Punjab, said there were several issues which needed to be resolved on immediate basis and the agent mafia issue was at the top of the list.
Secretary Ali Tahir said latest information technology would be utilised and soon the role of agents would be eliminated from all sections of E&T Departments. Some new modification would be made in the Excise Motor Branch Database so that the presence of real owners must be ensured and agents would be helpless then, Ali Tahir added. When live snapshot would be the part of Motor Branch online Database, then no agent could come there and in near future they themselves would be eliminated.