MANDI BAHAUDDIN - The people have rejected the lifetime token fee for cars up to 1000cc and deposit of token fee with Excise and Taxation Department. They also demanded withdrawal of the scheme. 
People belonging to lower middle class said that small vehicles were purchased by the masses with low income. Previously, yearly token fee was about Rs400 to Rs500 yearly for a vehicle up to 1000cc. Estimated life of vehicle is about 10 years. Under new the scheme, the token fee had been doubled in addition to making its payment with vehicle registration fee in lump sum. A person who purchased a Mehran car 800cc through a dealers said that he had to pay registration and lifetime token fee as following (1) Registration fee Rs15,000 to 16,000; 2 income tax and professional tax Rs 1100; 3 lifetime token fee excluding token price Rs10,200; and 4 motor dealers take Rs6,000 for registration of vehicle on the plea that it is Suzuki Motors Company policy that registration of vehicle has to be done by the dealers.
After purchase of 800cc car, one has to pay Rs32,000 to Rs33,000 to bring the vehicle on road. Keeping in view these figures, the new lifetime token fee is to burden the purchaser with unjustified heavy expenses. Besides, this policy is not applicable to vehicles above 1000 cc that makes the lifetime token fee policy discriminatory. There is another aspect of the policy. In case the vehicle meets accident and is destroyed, the owner of such vehicle would suffer a loss of lifetime token fee he had paid.
In the same way, if a vehicle is stolen, the thieves would enjoy its ride freely without depositing token fee. Payment of token fee on yearly basis with the General Pose Office was most convenient to car owners. Now they would make several rounds of Vehicle Registration Authorities Office where the staff is allegedly ill reputed.
The public is of the opinion that there was no flaw in the old policy but the Punjab government had replaced it with the new policy to extort more money in form of lifetime token fee that was not acceptable to the public. They urged the Punjab chief minister to take notice of the matter and withdraw the lifetime token scheme at the earliest.