Computerised registration cards for vehicles to roll out soon

PESHAWAR:

The provincial excise and taxation (E&T) department is planning to launch a chip-based smart card motor vehicle registration system which will help ease the burden on drivers forced to carry bundles of registration papers with them.

Following in the footsteps of Islamabad, the E&T department will introduce computerised registration cards which will have all the data of the vehicle and its owner. The initiative will initially be launched for newly-purchased vehicles but will soon be extended to all cars.

According to insiders, the department has already approached Islamabad’s E&T department, seeking help in acquiring the database system used in the federal capital to issue chip-based registration cards.

A team of K-P excise officials will visit Islamabad’s excise department to study the operations and feasibility of the system for K-P. “We will hold meetings with K-P officials next week to discuss our database system with them,” said an official of E&T Islamabad, requesting anonymity.

According to the provincial excise secretary, Dr Raheel Ahmed, the chip-based registration system will be launched in the province in the next three months and new registration numbers will be issued under it. “Our officers are visiting Sindh and Punjab to study their vehicle registration systems as well. Following this, the new computerised system will be launched and tenders will be floated for bids,” Ahmed said.

He added the new system will help in enhancing security measures already being taken in the province and vehicle records and information will be easily accessible to security agencies and authorities with whom E&T department shares the information.

The secretary added the department will continue to produce registration books and files of vehicles along with offering the additional computerised smart card facility. To ensure the card cannot be tampered with, it will have a chip carrying encrypted details of the owner and vehicle and other security features, said Ahmad.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 18^th, 2015.