Forgeries plague biometric verification system

Excise Department to restrict service only to Lahore, abolish cash transactions

LAHORE:

The case for increased use of technology to curb irregularities led to an updated biometric verification system but now the very system meant to root out discrepancies has fallen victim to digital forgeries.

The Punjab Department of Excise and Taxation made biometric verification of sellers and buyers mandatory for change of ownership of vehicles across the province from January 11, 2022.

Recently, it was revealed that some excise officials were changing the ownership of the original biometrics of the seller by forging the biometrics of another by tricking the system.

Sources privy to the matter, confided to The Express Tribune that two methods were being used to dupe the system.

First, the misuse of the ‘correction’ option in the biometric software - under which the original owner’s identity card is temporarily replaced by another person’s identity card number and after verifying the biometrics, the original owner’s identity card is re-entered.

The second method involves biometric verification in the name of the seller by issuing a bogus authority letter to another person, either by showing the vehicle owner as residing overseas or by justifying the disappearance of their fingerprints.

The icing on the cake is that officials are allegedly charging customers Rs 10,000 to 20,000 for this trickery of verifying biometric in their name without informing the real owners.

According to sources, so far more than 300 cases are being investigated for potential forgeries.

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A senior official of Punjab Excise Department, whilst requesting anonymity, conceded that the forgeries were indeed a problem and that the department was doing a digital footprint audit of the 314 cases that had come to their attention.

“For the future, we are considering a proposal to limit the existing facility of identity card correction and authority letters in all districts to Lahore only,” he informed.

By restricting the facility to the provincial capital only, the department hopes to deal with special cases by verifying overseas Pakistanis’ identity through video link interviews.

The senior official further stated that the department has imposed a complete ban on all cash transactions to avoid any irregularities. “Now the applicants for transfer will come to the office of the excise department and the excise staff will generate a PSID through which they would be able to make the payment online or at the bank counter.”

When asked when these suggestions would be implemented, the official informed The Express Tribune that the special committee had approved the summary of exemption from biometric verification for two months and sent it to the Chief Minister “but at present its final approval is pending due to the political situation in Punjab.”