The Excise Department has set up a system comprising 3D satellite cameras to track unregistered vehicles as well as those vehicles whose owners have been evading paying taxes.
With the help of modern cameras installed in government vehicles, citizens and government officials can be directly monitored.
The behavior of citizens and government officials will be monitored as well.
According to the department’s officials, a control room has been made functional in the DG’s office.
Moreover, it has been decided to install iris scanners in all the excise offices to discourage absenteeism.
The Director General of Excise, Muhammad Ali, had ordered equipping at least one vehicle with 3D cameras in every divisional headquarters to make road checking effective and to monitor the behavior of citizens and officials.
In this regard, the Director of Excise of Rawalpindi, Imran Aslam, had been the first person to equip a vehicle with ultra-modern cameras and online broadcasting system.
The vehicle is being used during road checking.
The vehicle beams live telecast to the control room established at the DG’s office.
A similar vehicle has been prepared in Multan, while the Director of the Lahore Motor Branch, Muhammad Asif, is supposed to prepare two such vehicles soon.
Sources said the director-general of Excise had received complaints claiming that road checking had not been done effectively at some places.
During the road checking process, incidents in which harsh words were exchanged between citizens and traffic police had also come
to light.
The cameras installed in the customized vehicles also record what transpires during road checking incidents which would help the control room to be better informed.
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Apart from this, the director-general of Excise of Punjab has made a central control room functional in his office where separate monitors update the data on tax recovery of separate regions live.
Information through graphs help a person compare current tax recoveries with those in the past.
Real-time monitoring of road checking and excise offices will be started in the control room soon.
Sources also said that there had been complaints vis-à-vis attendance habits of some officers who didn’t arrive in the office on time. There are some cases in which people skip office for many days.
To deal with the situation, biometric attendance system is to be introduced in all the excise offices.
Safety campaign
Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Secretary Zahid Akhtar Zaman distributed helmets among motorcyclists to inaugurate a road safety campaign.
The official said on the occasion, that there was a need to raise awareness about road safety to prevent fatal accidents.
The chief secretary said fatal accidents could be avoided by following the traffic rules, adding that motorcyclists must use helmets to make their journey safe. Bank of Punjab President Zafar Masood also distributed helmets.
The additional chief secretary and the secretaries of home and finance departments were also present on the occasion.
With additional input from APP
Published in The Express Tribune, December 24th, 2023.
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