Tax on vehicles

Letter July 21, 2014
It is unclear why the ad chooses to threaten citizens of punitive action if they fail to pay the motor vehicle tax.

KARACHI: This is in response to the Sindh government’s advertisement that appeared in the newspaper on July 20.

It is unclear as to why the ad chooses to threaten citizens of punitive action if they fail to pay the motor vehicle tax. Couldn’t you have your ad edited by a semi-educated or at least a cultured person before releasing it to the press? It is neither appropriate nor ethical to have your personal photograph included in an official advertisement that was paid for by the taxpayers’ money.

Now, on an even more serious level, in your entire fleet of a few authorised and many unauthorised official vehicles, not one has paid its motor vehicle tax for the past many years. Besides not paying taxes, some four to eight thousand Sindh government vehicles are not even registered with the excise & taxation department. Doesn’t it shame you to demand motor vehicle tax from citizens when your entire government fleet is itself delinquent in meeting this requirement?

Lastly, you may wish to spend some time in improving the archaic and bureaucratic motor vehicle tax payment system. One needs to make a number of visits before one can run into the good fortune of an operator present in his seat and the computer system working at the payment office. Please close down all payment offices and enable every citizen to make tax payment online or using SMS-based mobile phone money transfer system. You could reduce the misery suffered by citizens by allowing tax payments to be made for up to five years at a time instead of just one.

Naeem Sadiq

Published in The Express Tribune, July 22nd, 2014.

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