Over 100,000 files for registration of new vehicles have been lying pending for two and half years with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Excise and Taxation authority as issuing process of computerised number plates stopped owing to renaming of the province and some other technical reasons, the Business Recorder has learnt.
In 2005, EHA Hoffmann, GMBH a Germany company had awarded contract by the authority for a period of five years to develop computerised vehicle registration system in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, sources told this scribe. The sources further said that the German company had assigned the job of issuing around 0.5 million computerised vehicle registration number plates and developing computerised database of all the vehicles registered in the province. The rate of computerised number plate for motorcycle was fixed at Rs 1000 and for other vehicles below 2400 CC charges are minimum 4 percent of the vehicle value.
In April 2010, the company contract was extended as the task assigned to the firm could not be completed within the stipulated period owing to technical reasons, according to the sources.
The sources further said that the stoppage of issuing new computerised number plates since September 2010 caused a substantial financial losses to the department after a large number of people got their new vehicles registered in other provinces. "A considerably declined in computerised vehicle registration rate was registered over the past two years, but the recovery ratio was also dim in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the sources said.
Nevertheless, the process of issuance of computerised number plates was stopped due to renaming of province as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the light of 18th constitutional amendments in 2010. Through a circular, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had instructed the authority not to issue number plates with old name after the renaming of the province. An official in the Excise department (not authorise to spoke to media), said that the EHA Hoffmann, GMBH had constituted a committee to retrieve an amount of Rs 23 million for more than 23,000 non-bose computerised number plates, nearly 24,000 registration books, and 25,000 third number plates, said an official in Excise and Taxation department. The amount was paid to company by Provincial government as compensation money, the sources said.
In the meanwhile, the sources said that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had ceiled a bulk of stock amounting of Rs 23 million claimed by the company and initiated an inquiry in this regard. After carrying out a probe by NAB, the amount was un-ceiled on July, 17 2012. Unavailability of computerised number plates is creating problems for new vehicle buyers across the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Alamgir Khan, a resident of defence colony, told this scribe that he visited excise and taxation department time and again for computerised number plates but he left in empty handed every time. "I had submitted all perquisite documents a year back, but authorities are yet to be issue computerised number plates," he added. Another new vehicle buyer, Jamal Khan said that police are fleecing them with charging huge fines on pretext of expiry date of temporary documents issued by the excise and taxation department. What we can do, I had visited number of time to get my registration, but not availed, he said. The Visitors to the motor branch have urged the authorities to take notice of the situation
An official (not authorised to spoke to media), said that the Excise and Taxation authority is swiftly working to immediately clear a huge pending cases for the last two years He added that deposal rule would be defined as around Rs 23 million computerised number plates and registration books has been declared redundant. The official further added that the huge amount of material will be auctioned as scrapped The authority are ready to supply a package of 40,000 computerised number plates and registration books already prepared in 2010, but it was delayed due to renaming the province, the official informed.
The official admitted that the authority had failed to supply computerised number plates to more than 0.1 million new vehicle buyers as NAB was the biggest hurdle before the huge clearing of pending cases. He further said the new stock of more than 40,000 un-ceiled had been prepared during last month, but also delayed due to inquiry of NAB.
"A committee would also be constituted to end deadlock persisted due to intervention of NAB to complete the process of issuance of computerised number plates in the province, the official added. The official expressed the hope that the process of issuance of number plates would be initiated very soon and it will cover all districts within next two to three months.