Pay taxes: Clamp down on token tax defaulters

E&T Department to introduce new ways for making tax payments.

LAHORE:

The Excise and Taxation Department is working on new ways to get people to pay token tax on their vehicles, including by allowing payments to be made over the phone and sticking wheel clamps on cars.

Director General Nasim Sadiq told The Express Tribune that the department was also changing the way it checks whether vehicles have paid token tax.

Rather than set up pickets for random checks, the E&T police will check the status of tax payments of parked cars via a cell-phone service that will enable them to obtain the particulars of a car by entering its registration number.

Telecom companies have also been taken on board to accept token tax payments anywhere in the country through a payment system (PAYSYS). The department is working with the Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL), not only on PAYSYS, but also the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) software, that will enable high-definition cameras to read the vehicles numbers.

The E&T Department has distributed thousands of pamphlets advising people to clear their token tax dues. Car dealers and motor mechanics have also been asked to tell their clients to pay the tax.

Telecom companies will disseminate information through text messages regarding possible action in case of non-payment.

The department will also make an announcement when the amnesty period, for which the fine for non-payment has been waived, expires.

The E&T director general said the fine would not be collected on payments made before December 30. The fine to be paid will increase gradually thereafter so that 100 per cent fine will be collected from February 1, 2014, he said. “However these dates are subject to change,” he said.

The E&T police will also paste stickers on vehicles that haven’t paid token tax. The department is working to set up an independent helpline number through which people can obtain information of their vehicles.

Sadiq said that the department did not want to inconvenience people who had already paid the tax.

In a few days, the department will start placing wheel clamps on vehicles that have a history of token tax default, he said.

The department has purchased 20 wheel clamps and is buying 80 more.

These clamps can be placed anywhere. They will only be removed after the token tax is paid.

The director general said the clamps would allow the department to seize vehicles without impounding them. He said he expected most people to pay the token tax before the deadline.

He said the PAYSYS would help people make the payments without going to post offices. He said they were working on the PAYSYS and the ANPR on war footing but could not provide a date when they would become functional.

The Punjab Police would be provided the ANPR system to help them identify stolen vehicles.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 15^th, 2013.