Biometric registration of vehicles suspended

Move aimed at making up for losses of millions of rupees daily

RAWALPINDI:

The Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control Department Punjab has decided to temporarily suspend the biometric verification for registration and transfer of vehicles and motorcycles in all 36 districts including in the Rawalpindi district for three months.

After the introduction of the biometric system for the registration and transfer of vehicles and motorcycles and the suspension of the manual transfer of ownership of old vehicles in April, the excise and taxation department lost millions of rupees daily.

Sources said that after the introduction of the biometric system for the registration of old vehicles, people were facing problems in getting old vehicles transferred because the complete record of registration of old cars and motorcycles had not been computerised. Due to the non-availability of the computerised record, old vehicles and motorcycles were returned without verification.

Sources said the biometric system will be completely suspended for 90 days from September 10, which is aimed at making up for losses of millions of rupees daily. After the suspension of the biometric system, the excise department is expected to fetch a revenue of up to Rs15 billion in three months because a large number of owners of old vehicles and motorcycles were waiting for registration.

Earlier, the excise and taxation department had abruptly implemented the biometric system, due to which the process of registration and transfer of ownership of vehicles had been facing delays. Owing to the introduction of the biometric system, registration and transfer of as many as 177,000 vehicles had been delayed, while the department was also incurring losses in terms of revenue.

According to sources, the new registration of vehicles, motorcycles and transfer of old vehicles and motorcycles will be carried under the old manual system in all 36 districts of Punjab from September 11 to December 11.

Earlier, the excise and taxation department informed the government of the difficulties arising from implementing the biometric system. The department had sent a summary proposing suspension of the biometric system for three months, which has been approved by the provincial minister of taxation, the sources said.

According to the sources, the biometric system will be implemented again after three months from January 2023 in a phased manner, with full implementation planned by June 2023. During this time, the excise authorities will continue to exercise manual registration and transfer of vehicles. On the other side, the suspension of the previously mandatory biometric verification will affect the employment of dozens of people associated with this system.

The removal of biometric requirement has caused a wave of happiness among vehicle owners and transporters. Transporter Asif Khan maintained that a large number of transporters will benefit from the waiver. He said that most people in the transport industry are illiterate and they had been badly affected by the mandatory requirement for biometric verification for registration and ownership transfer of vehicles.

Vehicle Showrooms’ Union President Shaukat Ali also lauded the decision and said that car-dealers had appealed to the Punjab government to suspend the biometric system. He said that transporters and showroom owners had also protested against the new system and held negotiations with the provincial minister of taxation, which turned out to be successful.

“We are not against the biometric system, but it should be implemented in a phased manner in six months so that no stakeholder is harmed,” he said adding that biometric suspension will lead to a record increase in revenue for the government as hundreds of thousands of vehicles parked in showrooms will be registered.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 4^th, 2022.