Pay your taxes: Vehicle checking campaign starts today

Drive to continue till November 1

KARACHI: The excise and taxation department is all set to launch a road checking campaign to nab defaulted motorcyclists from non-payment of motor vehicle tax or for riding unregistered vehicles starting today (Monday) till November 1.

This was announced by the Excise and Taxation and Narcotics Control Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla while presiding over a meeting in his office on Sunday. Arrangements made for the road checking campaign were reviewed in the meeting.

Excise and Taxation and Narcotics Control Secretary Abdul Rahim Shaikh, director-generals Shabbir Ahmed Shaikh and Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, Admin Director Syed Sibten and other officers attended the meeting.

Shabbir informed the meeting that only 11 teams had been constituted at 38 places in Karachi to nab the vehicle tax defaulters while the department's regional directors had also formed separate teams for this purpose.

As many as 12 branches of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) have been assigned in Karachi to facilitate the defaulters in payment of tax. These are at Awami Markaz, Shaheed-e-Millat Road, Defence Housing Authority Phase I, Clifton, Korangi Industrial Area, MA Jinnah Road, Denso Hall, the SITE area, Nazimabad, PIDC, II Chundrigar Road and Gulshan-e-Hadeed.

In Hyderabad, vehicle tax may be deposited in NBP's Shahbaz Building and Fatima Jinnah Road branches.

Directing the officers assigned for duty to wear uniforms during the campaign, Chawla said it should be ensured that no road be blocked and impounded vehicles are only released after clearance of the outstanding dues with penalty.

He advised the officers to be polite and refrain from misbehaving with any citizen, warning that departmental action would be taken against them otherwise. It was also decided in the meeting that action would be taken against Qingqi rickshaws, auto rickshaws and vehicles without number plates, suspicious or expired number plates, fancy number plates or personalised number plates which had already been cancelled.

The officers were asked by the minister to make the road checking campaign a success and check maximum number of vehicles as no one was above the law. The minister also requested the owners of the vehicles to pay their due taxes to avoid any untoward situation during the campaign.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2018.