Lifetime vehicular numbers next year

Excise DG says the new system part of Safe City Project

LAHORE

Under the Safe City Project Punjab, Punjab Excise and Taxation Department (E&TD) has decided to launch a lifetime owner-based vehicular registration number system, which will remain with the owner even after the sale of vehicle. 

Sources in E&TD revealed that the new system will be launched next year and all necessary arrangements in this regard have been completed and presently E&T authorities are fine tuning the project. They said the new system will help in tracing the person who actually owns a vehicle. 

As per new system, a vehicle owner will get registration number for lifetime and every time when someone will sell a vehicle, only the data of the vehicle will be transferred to the new owner while the vehicle’s registration number will remain with the previous owner.

Presently, whenever someone sells his car then his number is also transferred to the new owner and in most cases people use legal stamp papers or sale deeds for transfer and avoid getting transferring the vehicle from E&TD’s motor registration branch in their name to save government taxes.

“Most of the times, a vehicle is sold three or more times via legal open deed and whenever any vehicle needs to be located by any agency or department then it could only locate the first owner of the vehicle while the rest of new owners could not be located,” E&TD sources revealed. 

A senior official of Excise Department told The News, that Excise Motor Branch can only have vehicle’s data when its owner provides its sale deed and new owner’s data. He added with this new system the department will have the data of each vehicle number and its owner and whenever vehicle will be changed by anyone he will have to use that number to its new vehicle and system will remain up to date.

Talking to The News, Punjab E&TD Director General Akram Ashraf Gondal said this new system is the third segment of Safe City Project Punjab and it will be launched in a few weeks along with new Universal Number Plate System and Smart Card Registration Book System.

“We will link the smart book with number plates and can get exact data of any vehicle in a single click,” he said, adding the department is also working on a mobile app to provide this facility to general public for checking ownership of a vehicle before sale and purchase.

Excise DG Akram Ashraf added that Punjab Assembly has also passed a bill in this regard and all necessary steps have already been completed by the department. He said the department will have up-to-date data of all vehicular registration numbers and now there will be no more hurdles of locating the vehicular owner manually.  On a query regarding old number series, Akram Ashraf said that after the launch on new universal number plate system people can dispose of their previous vehicular number by returning it to the Excise Department as the department has also provision of replacing the old vehicle numbers with new universal number. Only digital registration card system is little delayed while the rest of two systems including registration number and universal number plates system have been completed, he added.