E&T unable to deliver smart cards, number plates

Rawalpindi: The Excise and Taxation (E&T) Rawalpindi is unable to provide Smart Cards (Registration Book) and Number Plates thanks to the apathy of the government of Punjab which has been unable to resolve issue for over a year.

Excise and Taxation Officer (ETO) Motor Registration Amjad Ali Awan told ‘The News’ that over 65,000 smart cards and over 50,000 number plates in Rawalpindi are pending for last one year. Although the people have paid token taxes and other government dues, but their prolong wait continues. They are continuously visiting E&T office to get smart cards and number plates but in vain. We have written several letters to Punjab government to resolve this issue on priority basis but nobody seems to be interested to resolve the issue,” he added. He said that public was using rough and sometime abusive language against them for not providing smart cards and number plates. He also said that due to delay in supply of number plates and smart cards, the E&T department was unable to generate proper revenue according to set target just because of the mismanagement of Punjab government. “We are facing shortfall in revenue generation as well,” he claimed.

According to Excise and Taxation Rawalpindi, over 2,000,000 smart cards and over 7,000,000 number plates are yet pending throughout Punjab province for over a year. It is worth mentioning here that NAB has taken up this issue to resolve public grievances but in vain.

On the other hand public was facing difficulties because traffic police is continuously impounding vehicles and issuing challan tickets to their owners despite having valid slip issued by the E&T, Rawalpindi. Majority of owners are using private number plates but traffic police refused to accept them. Traffic police wants number plates only issued by Punjab government in this regard.

On October 24, 2018, Punjab government started replacing the Old Registration book with a new ‘Smart Card’. The Punjab Safe City Project (PSCA) also gave the proposal to the Excise & Taxation Department along with new vehicle number plate design.