Excise online system succumbs to traffic

Officials say it would take days before the app becomes functional again

LAHORE:

The Provincial Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control Department’s Appointment Management System application stopped working as soon as the taxpayers logged onto it on the first day.

As a result, all transactions related to motor, professional and property taxes halted across Punjab.

Excise offices that were closed on March 22 due to the coronavirus pandemic were reopened last month by the Excise and Taxation Department with the coronavirus prevention measures in place and utilising the appointment management system instead of the usual manual work.

Through the application, registration and transfer of vehicles and transport and token tax collection processes were digitalised that were running with great success.

However, the application was later put up for processing the collection of other taxes without updating its software that led to its failure on the first day of work.

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For the past month, the work was ongoing in the motor branches through the same app, but the newly included load resulted in a technical fault that could not be overcome by the department’s information technology (IT) professionals.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, an IT expert said they have told the top brass of the taxation department that it would take them a few days to fix the application to bear the new workload.

The Appointment Management System application was working on motor vehicle registration in nine cities of Punjab, including Lahore.

The top officials have decided to expand the scope of the application to collect property tax as well.

“People from all over Punjab will be able to submit their vehicle registration and property tax, including token tax, through this app,” an excise department official remarked.

“More counters have been set up for utlising the app in excise and taxation offices across Punjab,” he added.

Explaining the advantages of the digital platform, the officer said that four people can be easily dealt with through the app in an hour, which means that a citizen has all the work completed within 15 minutes.

However, the taxation department could not predict the load on the system accurately enough to sustain online traffic without crashing.

When Director Qamarul Hassan Sajjad was contacted in this regard, he said that upgrades were being made to the new app.

“The app is being upgraded to include the offices of property tax of small towns, which were not previously added to the system,” he maintained, adding that the revamping work would start soon.

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The director said that the system is designed for the benefit of the people amid the deadly pandemic and the department would continue to improve it over time.

“Only by putting the full load on the system, you can find out what is lacking in it and how to fix it.”

He highlighted that the technical problem will be removed as soon as possible to resume service through the online app and protect the people by avoiding physical contact.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 17^th, 2020.