Token tax unpaid on 500 official vehicles

Tax on some cars owned by S&GAD has not been paid since 2002.

LAHORE:

The Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD) has not paid token tax on some 500 official vehicles it owns that are in the use of the chief minister, ministers, politicians, judges and senior bureaucrats, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Meanwhile, the Punjab government has launched a massive campaign to collect token tax on private vehicles for the financial year 2010-11. A number of vehicles have been impounded and fines have been imposed for failure to pay the tax. The Excise and Taxation Department gave advertisements in newspapers warning citizens to pay token tax or face the cancellation of their registration.

Of the S&GAD vehicles, 100 are assigned to the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, nine to provincial ministers, seven to advisors to the chief minister, 36 to chairmen of standing committees, nine to political assistants, 33 to parliamentary secretaries, four to consultants and two to the Punjab Assembly.

The remaining 300 vehicles are in the official use of bureaucrats including the chief secretary, additional chief secretary, administrative secretaries, commissioners, additional secretaries, deputy secretaries, section officers, senior official of special duty officers and director generals of various departments.

According to the official record of the Excise and Taxation Department, token tax is owed on seven vehicles since 2002, five since 2003, five since 2004, 12 since 2005, five since 2006, 315 since 2007, 98 since 2008, 33 since 2009, and 20 since 2010.

An Excise and Taxation Department official said that the defaulting departments had been informed repeatedly to pay token tax on vehicles by the end of June every year. He said not a single vehicle owned by the S&GAD had deposited tax for 2010-11 yet. “Although it is only transferring funds from one department to another, it is essential for recovery of receipts to meet revenue targets,” the official said.

He said private vehicles on which token tax was owed were being fined 50 per cent of the due tax.

“They are given challan forms to make a deposit in the public kitty. Only after they make a deposit are their registration books returned,” he said.

In the budget for 2009-10, the Finance Department allocated Rs2.69 million to the S&GAD for the payment of token taxes on official vehicles. The funds were spent on the purchase of luxury items such as stereo  systems for the vehicles of senior officials. In the 2010-11 budget, Rs450,000 was allocated but not used to pay tax.

An official in the CM’s Secretariat said there were 40 vehicles in their transport pool and taxes were due on half of them.

A senior official of the S&GAD admitted that tax was owed on a number of vehicles. He said the department was working with the Excise and Taxation Department to pay the due taxes.



Published in The Express Tribune, April 21^st, 2011.