One-stop shop: Vehicle data for all 36 districts to be centralised

E&T Dept to use NADRA’s e-Sahulat platform for collecting taxes.

LAHORE:

The Excise and Taxation Department is planning to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with National Database and Registration Authority to centralise the motor vehicle data of all 36 districts of the province.

The Excise and Taxation Department and NADRA signed a memorandum of intent (MoI) about the project last week. According to the contents of the document, both sides would enter into a partnership for developing a new application for the centralisation of vehicle data in all the provincial districts. NADRA would bear the cost of the project.

Through the agreement, Excise and Taxation Department would use NADRA’s “e-Sahulat” platform for collecting taxes on vehicles.

The department had earlier floated a tender for computerisation of registration files of around six million vehicles in the province. These files cover vehicles registered before 2006 in Lahore and the other 35 districts of the Punjab.

Excise and Taxation Department Headquarter Director Irfan Khalid said NADRA would centralise all the motor vehicle record of the province.

He said it would be impossible to register the same vehicle in two different districts of the province after the centralisation process was completed. The official said there had been cases of multiple registration of the same vehicle in different districts.

“After the agreement with NADRA, people will be able to pay their motor vehicle taxes at e-Sahulat kiosks. NADRA will bear all the costs of the project.

Later, they will get Rs10 for every Rs1,000 submitted through e-Sahulat under the head of vehicle taxes,” he said.

Excise and Taxation Director General Naseem Sadiq said centralisation of the entire data of the province would allow the department to install radio frequency identification devices (RFID) in vehicles. “These chips, carrying vital information, will be installed on the windscreen of a vehicle. The information would be transmitted with the help of a sensor,” he said.

The official said the RFID project could not be made functional without having the data for the entire province. He said the project was currently being tested.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2014.