ISLAMABAD-Excise and Taxation department Islamabad on Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with National Bank of Pakistan regarding collection of road tax online and through banking channel.
Soon, citizens will be able to pay their token taxes online, via mobile app or by visiting any branch of NBP all over the country.
The signing ceremony was held at the Chief Commissioner Officer here. According to the details, the decision will facilitate the vehicle-owners in tax payment, especially those living outside the federal capital. Director E&T and Vice President of the bank signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organisations. Under the decision, the vehicle owners would be in a position to submit token tax of their vehicles through online procedure, according to the officials.
Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Muhammad Hamza Shafqaat said that all the taxes pertaining to excise department can now be submitted online.
He said that the vehicle owners may submit taxes while sitting in the homes and resultantly the tout mafia would also be discouraged.
Director Excise and Taxation Department Bilal Azam said that such steps would result in enhanced tax collection and that the people would also feel facilitated. He said that currently there were 4.1 billion vehicles registered at the Excise office and added that it was difficult to collect tax from a large number of people manually. He said that the people could submit their fees at the National Bank of Pakistan.
Vice President NBP M. Farhan said that keeping in view the ease involved in it, the facility would be extended to the provinces level as well at the earliest. He said that the vehicle-owners would be able to deposit their taxes at any of the bank branches across the country. The Excise and Taxation Office (ETO) Islamabad has been dealing about 200 to 230 cases of vehicles registration per day. Total number of registered motorbikes has reached to 278,062 in Islamabad. According to the officials at the office, different schemes and packages offered by the private banks has caused significant increase in number of vehicles in the city during past years. The department has taken various measures to discourage tout mafia and corruption in office as public facilitation centre has been established to guide the visitors and token system had also been introduced to end queues on counters.
To control the practice of fraud, the department has also introduced online verification of vehicles and one could get details about any vehicle from department’s website before purchasing it. Only a resident of Islamabad or having working evidence was eligible to register motor vehicles with the Excise Department.