Vehicle registration: No new number plates for another three months
Excise and Taxation office stops accepting payment for new plates.
Excise and Taxation office stops accepting payment for new plates. PHOTO: FILE
LAHORE:
The Excise and Taxation office has stopped accepting payments for car and motorcycle number plates because new plates are unavailable and likely to remain so for three months.
The E&T office stopped handing out new registration plates for motorcycles in February 2012 and for cars in March 2013. Though an auction to hire a new contractor for the supply of registration plates was held last month, no contract can be awarded until the bids undergo a technical evaluation which will take at least another six weeks. All bids had failed this stage at an earlier auction in March.
The E&T Department issued a notification on May 4 instructing offices not to accept payments for new number plates. “We had to stop because a lot of people were complaining about not receiving number plates though they had paid for them,” said E&T Region C Director Masudul Haq.
At least 400,000 motorcyclists in Lahore have paid for number plates (Rs400 each) since last year and are yet to receive them, according to E&T officials. A few thousand car owners are also awaiting plates. Meanwhile, they have had to get unofficial plates made by local vendors.
Four companies submitted bids on April 9: AGCN, Inbox, 3M and Symbol. The samples they submitted have been sent to Germany for metallurgical testing. The results are expected at the end of June, said E&T Department Director General Humayun Azhar Sheikh.
He said that it would take another week to assess the financial bids.
He estimated that new plates would be available in about three months. The E&T Department also held an auction in March 2013, but the bids failed the technical evaluations.
Verdict reserved
The E&T Department is currently engaged in a court case with 3M, its previous supplier, which it had sought to blacklist from the new auction for the contract for registration plates.
Both sides have completed their arguments and the Lahore High Court, at the last hearing on May 14, reserved its verdict. The court has put a stay on the awarding of the contract until the case is decided.
E&T officials said that they had blacklisted 3M because it had breached the terms of its contract, which 3M disputes.
They said that the supplier had been allowed to take part in the auction so that, in case the LHC decides against the department, the bidding process would not have to be restarted.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 19th, 2013.
The Excise and Taxation office has stopped accepting payments for car and motorcycle number plates because new plates are unavailable and likely to remain so for three months.
The E&T office stopped handing out new registration plates for motorcycles in February 2012 and for cars in March 2013. Though an auction to hire a new contractor for the supply of registration plates was held last month, no contract can be awarded until the bids undergo a technical evaluation which will take at least another six weeks. All bids had failed this stage at an earlier auction in March.
The E&T Department issued a notification on May 4 instructing offices not to accept payments for new number plates. “We had to stop because a lot of people were complaining about not receiving number plates though they had paid for them,” said E&T Region C Director Masudul Haq.
At least 400,000 motorcyclists in Lahore have paid for number plates (Rs400 each) since last year and are yet to receive them, according to E&T officials. A few thousand car owners are also awaiting plates. Meanwhile, they have had to get unofficial plates made by local vendors.
Four companies submitted bids on April 9: AGCN, Inbox, 3M and Symbol. The samples they submitted have been sent to Germany for metallurgical testing. The results are expected at the end of June, said E&T Department Director General Humayun Azhar Sheikh.
He said that it would take another week to assess the financial bids.
He estimated that new plates would be available in about three months. The E&T Department also held an auction in March 2013, but the bids failed the technical evaluations.
Verdict reserved
The E&T Department is currently engaged in a court case with 3M, its previous supplier, which it had sought to blacklist from the new auction for the contract for registration plates.
Both sides have completed their arguments and the Lahore High Court, at the last hearing on May 14, reserved its verdict. The court has put a stay on the awarding of the contract until the case is decided.
E&T officials said that they had blacklisted 3M because it had breached the terms of its contract, which 3M disputes.
They said that the supplier had been allowed to take part in the auction so that, in case the LHC decides against the department, the bidding process would not have to be restarted.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 19th, 2013.