After two years: Excise dept resumes issuing number plates

From January 1, the dept has resumed issuing the number plates but only to new vehicles

KARACHI: New car owners will finally be able to buy the official licence plates for their cars as the Excise and Taxation Department (E&TD) has started issuing them after nearly two years.

However, this service is only extended to car owners who approach the department from January 1. The old applicants have to wait another month-and-a-half, according to E&TD director Shahabuddin Khatri.

The department had invited tenders from private companies to award the contract for the manufacture of the official licence plates. One of the companies claimed in the court that the tender was issued on the basis of favouritism. The judges gave a stay order and, since then, the department has not been able to award the contract.



The department’s office superintendent, Ismail Chandio, told The Express Tribune that they have started issuing the number plates from January 1 to the new vehicles being purchased in the market. He said that the current series is of BEU for the private cars, for which they have got the number plates. “Per day, one series gets printed,” he said, adding that millions of plates, which are in the backlog, were also getting printed side by side.

Till the backlog is not cleared, Khatri assured that the traffic police would not fine the cars without number plates. He said that they have got four series in advance and two old series printed with them. “Up till now, more than 7,000 plates have been printed,” he said, adding that they would also give ads in newspapers next week, asking the vehicle owners to collect their number plates series-wise. “We don’t have enough space at our offices to keep such huge number of backlogged plates,” he said.



Pakistan Motor Dealers Association chairperson HM Shahzad said that they have sold more than one million cars without number plates. However, he said that those buyers who have purchased their vehicles from motor dealers will get their plates from their respective dealers.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th, 2016.