Two steps back

With much fanfare, the excise department has been advertising a computer application enabling citizens to pay their token tax online instead of visiting the Excise and Taxation offices. This is a step in the right direction, especially during the Corona pandemic but things on the ground are much different.

You install the App and when you locate your vehicle’s particulars, it mentions the name of the former owner from whom you bought the vehicle, let’s say, a decade ago. The vehicle had been transferred in your name and you had duly paid its tokens every year for the last ten years. This is an egregious oversight at the part of the excise and taxation department. To avail rebate by paying the token tax within July, the excise and taxation department needs to wake up to address public predicament.

Iftekhar A Khan

Lahore