Biometric verification made compulsory for transfer of vehicles

Excise officers accelerate campaigns against tax defaulters

RAWALPINDI: May 31 would be last date to transfer ownership of vehicles with open letters. This is due to the fact that from June 1 Punjab Excise Department (PED) will introduce a new system under which the buyers and sellers will have to visit the Excise Office for Biometric verification.

The previous paper based system, which was considered convenient for those making the transaction, will now become obsolete and illegal.

The excise officers have also been directed to accelerate on-going recovery campaigns and conduct general hold up to take action against token tax defaulters and unregistered vehicles.

According to an Excise and Taxation spokesman, on the directive of Excise and Taxation Punjab Director General Muhammad Akram Ashraf special teams have been constituted to conduct a general hold up and check unregistered vehicles and token tax defaulters.



Moreover, strict action is being taken against tax defaulters, the vehicles of token tax defaulters are being impounded, he added. He added that the department is sealing commercial and residential properties here for non-payment of property tax.

He urged the owners of properties and vehicles to pay their property taxes and vehicles token taxes at the earliest otherwise action against them would be taken under the law.

He informed that the Rawalpindi Division has collected over Rs3.86 billion revenue including property, motor, professional taxes, excise fee and entertainment duties in the four districts of the division.

Provincial government had fixed over Rs4.6 billion as the revenue target for Rawalpindi division including Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Chakwal and Attock districts for 2017-18.

The spokesman informed that the owners of vehicles have been directed to register their vehicles on their own names as most vehicle owners across the province are using open transfer letters to buy and sell vehicles.



The open transfer letters which did not have any date or details of the buyer were considered a convenient means of transferring ownership without paying any charges or taxes. However, open letters have now been declared illegal by the government, he added. PED has directed the owners to get their vehicles registered with the department and complete the transfer of the ownership till May 31.

From June 1, it will be compulsory for the buyers and sellers to physically visit the Excise Office and transfer the ownership to the buyer's name, going through the whole process again. Open letters will become useless after May 31, he added.

The computerised transfer deeds will now be used instead of paper-based deeds, he said adding that this has been done to facilitate the public and save the time consumed by manually filling the forms.

The deed will have complete information about the buyer, seller and the vehicle being sold and transferred.

The buyers and sellers will just have to sign the form and put their thumbprints on it. Biometric verification will be done and photographs will be taken as well by the department, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th, 2018.