PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Monday extended the online vehicle registration system to the entire province and introduced a mechanism for online payment of urban property taxes.

Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur launched the initiatives during a special ceremony at the Chief Minister`s House, where excise minister Mian Khaliqur Rehman, acting chief secretary Abid Majeed, excise secretary Fayyaz Ali Shah and other relevant officials were in attendance.

After the extension of the Universal Number Plates System of Vehicles, which was previously limited to the vehicles registered in Peshawar, number plates with three digits and three alphabets will be issued to vehicles from other districts as well.

Mr Gandapur told participants that digitisation was imperative to ensure good governance in the province.

`We are working to digitise all government departments under our e-governance policy that will not only ensure transparency but improve service delivery as well,` he said, according to an official statement issued by the Chief Minister`s Secretariat.

The chief minister said the introduction of online tax payment and vehicle registration systems across the province were important milestones as they would increase people`s confidence in government machinery and promote tax payments.

He said the online system would reduce paperwork and the administrative costs of the excise and taxation department.

`Our government is investing substantially in potential sectors aimed at building their capacity to make KP financially self-sufficient. The government is taking concrete steps under a comprehensive strategy according to the vision of Imran Khan to make the province financially self-sufficient,` he said.

Mr Gandapur also said that eradication of drugs from the province was among priorities of the provincial government.

He urged the narcotics control department to effectively utilise modern technology for the purpose.

`We will provide all required resources to the department for purchasing hi-tech equipment,` he said.

Officials briefed the chief minister about their initiatives and said that the Public Facilitation Module consisted of both android and web modules through which citizens would conveniently access their property tax records online, online access to challan and payment history.

They said that the other features of the online tax payment system included prompt resolution of online queries related to property tax and availability of standardised taxcalculators.

The officials said that initially, the module was launched for three districts, which would be extended to the rest of the districts in the next phases.

They said that the initiative was expected to generate an additional revenue of Rs5 billion.

The officials said that under the Universal Number Plate System, people could use the mobile app and website for vehicle registration and renewal, and payments.

They said that the system would ensure the digitisation and centralisation of the entire process of vehicle registration in the province.