Karachi-registered vehicles most sought after in Sindh

Motorists say registration location crucial to vehicle's resale value

KARACHI:

The belief that one city’s number plate is superior over another is prevalent across Pakistan and is a leading cause for some cars fetching more money than others - the same holds true for Sindh, where a Karachi number plate is the most sought after.

Even though there are offices of the motor vehicle registration wing of the Excise and Taxation Department in every divisional headquarter of the province, people prefer to get their vehicles registered in Karachi.

Munir Ahmed, a resident of Hyderabad, commenting on the matter said that he had recently purchased a small car and had come all the way to Karachi to register it. When asked why he had made the nearly 3 hour journey just for a registration plate, Ahmed replied: “I have heard that cars with a Karachi number plate have more of a resale value as compared to those registered outside the metropolis.” Lala Munawar, the owner of a showroom on Khalid bin Waleed Road in Karachi, concurring with Ahmed’s views said that cars which are registered in districts other than Karachi sell for less.

“In my experience, second hand vehicles registered in Karachi are sold swiftly, whereas cars bearing the registration of another district remain parked at the dealership for months. Dealers and showrooms also shy away from taking in vehicles registered in other districts,” the dealership owner explained. “The main reason that a Karachi registered car fetches good money is because of the easy verification process,” Munawar informed, adding that it was incredibly hard to verify the documentation of vehicles registered in other districts of the province. This preference leads to roughly 100,000 cars being registered in Karachi annually, as per official data obtained by the Express Tribune from the Excise and Taxation Department. The data further reveals that during the 2017-2018 financial year, around 80,000 new vehicles were registered across the province, out of which only 9 were registered in Sukkur, whereas the rest were registered in Karachi - not a single vehicle was registered in any other city of the province, including Hyderabad, which is the second largest city in Sindh.

According to Deputy Director of the Motor Vehicle Registration Wing of the Excise Department, Syed Ziauddin Shah, 2017-2018 numbers are not an anomaly as this trend repeats every year. “In 2022 so far, only 27 vehicles have been registered in Sukkur and all the rest were registered here in Karachi,” Shah informed. When asked for his views on why vehicle owners preferred a number plate from the metropolis, the Deputy Director said that there was a common perception that a Karachi registration would result in their car getting a better resale value.

“This perception should be done away with as the same type of number plate is issued by the Excise Department for all of Sindh. Dealers and businessmen have created this impression or myth amongst people just for their own profits,” Shah remarked while talking to The Express Tribune

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2022.