LAHORE – The Excise and Taxation Department’s passport-size registration book project has failed to facilitate the motorists, automobilists and agents sitting outside the Excise Office told this scribe on Friday.
They alleged that only the people paying extra money were being issued new registration books. “I am waiting for 25 files pending with the Excise Office Defense and 30 files pending with the Excise Office Fareed Kot House,” an agent said on condition of anonymity.
He alleged that the whole system was disturbed because of the Excise Department’s policy wherein the senior officers wanted to favour a dear one of former director general from whom the Excise Department had rented a building in Defense. “The building has been acquired at a monthly of Rs275,000 while in the same area buildings of same capacity are available for Rs60,000 to Rs100,000,” he added.
The agent further said most of the people preferred to visit the Excise Office Fareed Kot House since it was located near the two main markets of automobiles in Jail Road and Samanabad. “Also, facilities such as banks and transport are not available to the applicant motorists who visit the Defense Office, thus most of them prefer to visit the Fareed Kot House Office,” he explained.
An officer of the Excise Department said on condition of anonymity that at times people had to carry a lot of cash with them to deposit with the Excise office for registration of heavy luxury vehicles such as MBW, Mercedes and others. They claimed that it was difficult for them to carry such huge amounts with them to deposit with the Defense Office.
An agent said on condition of anonymity that Region C Director Rizwan Akram Sherwani was on leave for the past one month and the look after charge was with Region B Director Asif, who, he alleged, had failed to run the office smoothly. “Asif has also transferred a few officers from Region B to Region C, but they are seem to least interested in running the system smoothly,” said another agent on condition of anonymity.
When contacted, a senior officer of the Excise and Taxation Department said on condition of anonymity that there was no problem regarding issuance of new registration books since the department had got these books printed in bulk. Answering a question about the problems of the visitors to the Excise Department, he attributed them to the fact that July was a rush month.