Taxes of public cars unpaid, Punjab govt fines private cars

Token tax of about five hundred vehicles owned by the Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD) are unpaid.

Token tax of about five hundred vehicles owned by the Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD) and deployed with political personalities, judges and senior bureaucrats are unpaid.

The tax remains unpaid even though money is allocated in the budget for this purpose.

Out of the 500 or so defaulting cars, 100 are deployed at the chief minister’s secretariat, 14 with provincial ministers, five with advisers to the chief minister, 28 with chairpersons of standing committees, 12 with chairpersons of task forces, six with political assistants, 30 with parliamentary secretaries and four with consultants.

The remaining 300 vehicles are deployed with bureaucrats posted on key slots in the administrative set-up, including the chief secretary, additional chief secretary, administrative secretaries, commissioners, additional secretaries, deputy secretaries, section officers and director generals of various departments.

According to official records, out of the 500 vehicles, 320 haven’t paid token tax since 2007, 100 since 2008, 35 since 2009, five since 2006, seven since 2005, five since 2004, five since 2002, 11 since 2000, 10 since 1999 and four since 1991.

At the same time, the Punjab government has launched a campaign to collect token tax on vehicles owned by private citizens for the financial year 2009-2010. The excise and taxation department has established pickets throughout the city to catch tax violators who were supposed to have paid taxes by June 1. The defaulter vehicles are fined 50 per cent of the total due taxes and issued challans. However, the Punjab government has announced that those who pay by June 20 will get a 90 per cent concession on penalty.

Cars with unpaid taxes are impounded and owners fined.

An official at the excise and taxation department said that government departments defaulting on token tax were repeatedly asked to pay the dues by the end of June but the response has been poor. He added that taxes for not a single S&GAD car have been paid yet.

According to the Punjab government’s budget document, at S&GAD’s request the finance department allocated Rs2.69 million in 2009-2010 under the head of Rates and Taxes for the payment of token tax. While the funds have been utilised for purposes such as the purchase of music systems for cars, taxes on not a single car have been cleared. The case was the same in 2008-2009 when Rs1.3 million were allocated for the payment of token tax which were never paid.

An official at the chief minister secretariat said that out of the 35 cars which are owned by the secretariat, in addition to the 100 deployed with it by the S&GAD, half are token tax defaulters. The finance department allocated Rs100,000 for the secretariat to pay the token tax for the year 2008-2009. The same amount was allocated in financial year 2009-2010, yet the tax has not been paid.

Ahmed Aziz Tarar, additional secretary welfare S&GAD, said that homework was being done with the assistance of the Excise and Taxation department to pay the token tax. He said that the token tax of some vehicles has been deposited while admitting that a number of vehicles are token tax defaulters.

Another senior official of the Excise and Taxation department, requesting anonymity, said that all the departments had been served notices for the payment of token tax. He said that normally fines are not imposed when taxes are unpaid on official cars.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2010.