KARACHI: A major amount of Rs700 million has been retrieved by the excise and taxation department in the last eleven days from defaulters of motor vehicle tax in Sindh.
The Sindh Assembly was apprised on Tuesday during a question hour relating to the Excise and Taxation department that this record recovery had been made in concurrence with individuals who turned in big numbers to deposit the outstanding tax, reports Dawn.
Sindh’s Minister for Excise and Taxation Mukesh Kumar Chawla extended his gratitude to the media for advertising the campaign.
A Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) lawmaker Javed Hanif queried if people were being overcharged under the guise of this campaign.
To this, Mr Chawla said all payments via pay orders to ensure transparency and explained that dodgers or those who were using their vehicles without having paid tax were needed to clear up their dues too.
In response to a query by opposition Member Arif Mustafa Jatoi, Mr Chawla stated the National Highways and Motorway Police was a federal agency and its vehicles were registered in Islamabad since their headquarters were situated there.
But the excise and taxation minister said if any federal department sent an application for the registration of its vehicle in Karachi, it was considered as per the rules and regulations.
He added a registration mark “GP” kept only for federal government departments was assigned to it.
Also, an MPA from PTI Khurram Sher Zaman moved a supplementary question querying regarding the policy of assigning foreign registration number plates.
Mr Zaman stated some MPAs and Minister were utilizing foreign number plates of Qatar and Dubai and these vehicles could be seen in the assembly premises.
He queried the excise department if it was responsible for the issuance of these registration number plates.
To this, Mr Chawla replied that such vehicles having overseas number plates were permitted by the government.
The excise and taxation minister stated its department only registered custom paid vehicles and the information regarding vehicles having foreign number plates was with the federal government.
Mr Chawla said the data of vehicles with foreign number plates could be provided to the assembly members if they wanted.