‘Corrupt officials of E&T Office to be put behind bars’

Rawalpindi : Punjab Minister for Excise and Taxation and Anti-Narcotics Hafiz Mumtaz Ahmed has warned that corrupt officials of the department will be put behind bars soon.

He stated this in a ‘Khuli Kutcherry’ after listening to public complaints regarding Excise and Taxation (E&T), Rawalpindi. Public bemoaned the apathy of E&T office for failing to deliver smartcards and number plates to them despite passage of over 10 months.

The complainants also complained against corrupt officials of (E&T), Rawalpindi for allegedly selling beer illegally without permit. They also raised objections against presence of tout mafia in and around the E&T Office. Public has also demanded establishing a bank near E&T office Rawalpindi office for submitting challan fee easily.

On January 1, 2019 Punjab government had introduced system of smartcards to replace registration books and assured to start issuing ‘smartcards’ from March 1, 2019.

The system was to be introduced from January 1, 2019 but was delayed for two months. The whole process included smartcards, number plates and universal numbers. Punjab Excise and Taxation Department and Punjab Safe City Project (PSCA) had proposed to introduce new vehicle number plates design for the province.

The reason behind new number plate design is that CCTV cameras were not able to detect and read the current number plates. The modified size and font size of universal number plates would make them camera readable. The concerned department insisted public to submit fee to get smartcards and number plates. Public submitted millions of rupees as fee but vain.