Excise dept’s online system fails

People unaccustomed to IT continue to line up outside offices

RAWALPINDI: With a large population being non-tech-savvy, the Appointment Management System (AMS) mobile application launched by the Punjab excise department has failed miserably during the first week after its inauguration.

The system was inaugurated on June 3 at nine divisional excise offices across the province to prevent crowding at the office due to the coronavirus situation, officials told The Express Tribune.

However, the effort for the obit has failed to reap the results it aimed for. The Express Tribune visited the excise divisional office in Rawalpindi on Saturday. The department seemed packed like the past even after the launching of application to book appointments.

The excise officials said that only 10 of 40 applicants visited the office after fixing the appointment using the application. However, with a large population being novice to modern technology including rickshaw, taxi, truck, and bus drivers, dozens of motorists seeking registration, transfer, or submission of vehicle token tax visited the office like the past.

Meanwhile, The Express Tribune learnt that another reason why people were refraining from booking an appointment through AMS was that the applicants are being given appointments of two to three months later.

Hundreds of rickshaw, bus, and taxi drivers still visit the excise office daily after the system’s launching but they are not allowed to enter the building by the officials who cite that they have not booked their appointments through the application.

An excise motor branch official told The Express Tribune that the system was launched to prevent crowding in the office due to the coronavirus situation.

However, he added that a very small population was preferring to use it. Subsequently, the transporters’ representatives including Asif Khan, Ghulam Mustafa, Tariq Khan and others argued that most of the truck, bus, rickshaw, and taxi drivers were not educated enough to operate the mobile application. Rejecting the AMS, they said that the excise department should follow the pattern of banks and NADRA.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2020.