LAHORE: The Punjab Excise and Taxation Department while replacing vehicle registration books would introduce long-awaited automated smart cards from March this year, Pakistan Today has learnt.
The project to replace the registration book was announced some three years ago in 2015. Initially, this was announced to launch the project within one year which remained delayed due to the reasons best known to the authorities.
Last year in July, the Excise and Taxation director general announced to launch the smart card in November 2017 but the department could not fulfill this announcement. Officials confirmed that the department now would provide smart cards to the citizens in March.
They said that the Excise and Taxation Department would control and manage the provision of the smart cards to the citizens. “The system has been designed on the pattern of the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) which would be managed and controlled by the Excise Department,” they said.
An official said that over two million smart cards would be provided to the citizens, having durability, secure storage of personal data and counterfeit resistance. “These cards will bring several benefits to the motor owners due to its small size like CNIC (cards) which would be easy to carry around unlike the registration book,” he said.
Regarding compulsion for the citizens who already have their registration to replace with the new smart cards, the official said that this would be their discretion either they want to replace or not. However, he said that the new cards would be issued to every new motor while the department had decided to launch a campaign to motivate the owners to replace their registration book with the new card.
He said that this card would have 19 different features among five related to security. After the establishment of this project, every new vehicle would represent the vehicle registered in Punjab unlike previous practice which showed the registration of a specific district,” he said, adding that the cards have universal serial number containing a readable smart chip inside it, a readable bar code and a scanable QR code.
He said that if owner of the vehicle makes any change in its vehicle regarding chassis number, engine, transferring then a new card would be issued. The official said that the department has decided to amend the Section 30 of the Excise and Taxation law which would help the owners of other provinces to register their vehicles in Punjab.
