The Excise and Taxation Department has prepared a list of 200 agents – who act as a go-between for citizens and the department in obtaining registration documents – as part of a crackdown against the practice.
The list will be sent to the E&T director general on Wednesday (today), after which the department will issue detention orders against these agents.
Any of the people mentioned on the list seen on the E&T premises could be arrested.
The department has decided that it will deal directly with owners of vehicles. Registration books will now be mailed to the address mentioned on the registration book or the owner’s national identity card.
Motor Registration Authority-III Director Imran Aslam said that they had received several complaints against these agents, many of whom included car showroom owners. He said several agents sat in front of the E&T office on Egerton Road. He said some showroom owners also pushed their customers to get their vehicles registered through them. He said many of them blackmailed their customers demanding more money to collect the registration file.
He said some of the agents sitting in front of the E&T office were also involved in fraudulent activities.
Many of them gave their customers forged documents, he said.
The department has recently filed three complaints with the Mozang police in this regard.
He said that the E&T Department had four offices in Lahore where vehicle owners could submit documents for registration. Imran Aslam said they had also established counters to deal directly with vehicle owners.
He urged citizens to help the department purge the culture of dealing through agents.
Headquarters Director Irfan Khalid said that they had not received the list of 200 agents yet.
He said that they would issue detention orders against every agent mentioned on the list.
He said the department wanted to end all kinds of third-party intervention and will now send registration documents directly to their owners.
He said there would be the option of collecting these documents manually, but they will only be handed over to the vehicles’ original owners, who can prove their identities.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 9th, 2014.
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