Saving time: Number plate charges set to be added to registration fee

Excise Dept will resume issuing computerised number plates in August.


Rameez Khan July 31, 2014

LAHORE: The Excise and Taxation department has decided to add charges for computerised number plates for new vehicles to the registration fee from August, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The department will add Rs700 to the registration fee of motorcycles and rickshaws and Rs1,150 for cars and commercial vehicles.

INBOX, a private company, has set up a facility at the Excise and Taxation Office to supply number plates for the next three years.

Around 500,000 plates will be prepared every month, starting from August.

This will clear the backlog of plates within a few months.

Earlier, the department had stopped issuing new plates to motorcycles in February 2012 and to cars in March 2013. It stopped accepting payment for new plates in May 2013.

According to excise officials, over 4 million number plates have yet to be issued.

Every month, 0.25 million plates will be issued to newly-registered vehicles and 0.25 million to clear the backlog.

Motor Registration Authority Director Imran Aslam said number plate charges would be added to the registration fees once the department resumed issuing number plates.

“People, who got their vehicles registered after May 2013, will have to pay number plate charges in the Excise and Taxation office,” Motor Registration Authority Director Imran Aslam said. He said the number plates would be dispatched to the customers’ homes through courier.

He said the department had introduced a text service for vehicle owners to check the status of their number plates.

“A vehicle owner can obtain details and status of his number plate by sending his identity card number, vehicle registration number and postal address to a four-digit code via text message,” Aslam said. He said vehicle owners could use the text service to request the issuance of new number plates as well.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 1st, 2014.

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