LAHORE: At least 10 people have so far applied for obtaining licence for dealer vehicle registration (DVR) system which is being launched as a pilot project in the provincial capital soon to break officials-agents nexus and mitigate exploitation of applicants by the corrupt officials.

The facility will be provided initially for new registration of vehicles under the Punjab Motor Vehicle Transaction Licencees Act 2015.

Dedicated computerised facilitation desks with trained staff set up for those applying for vehicles registration a few years ago failed to deliver as per the expectation of the authorities as only 20 percent of the applicants used the facility, while the remaining 80pc hired the services of agents operating outside the Excise &Taxation (E&T)offices.

E&T Director General Akram Ashraf Gondal told Dawn the applications for licences were received after publishing advertisement in national press a couple of weeks ago.

He said the department had been mulling over a plan for the last four years to motivate people to apply for vehicles` registration directly to the offices, avoiding agents and touts. The department was expecting at least 50pc more applicants at the dedicated desks at its four offices in the city, he added.

He said by involving dealers in the registration process the department wanted to partly outsource the service to save time and money of applicants and also save them from inconvenience at the hands of untrained staff.

Mr Gondal said as per the SOPs (standard operating procedures),motor vehicle transaction licencees (MVTL) and permit holders would have to pass a training course to be conducted at authorised centres to have access to the DVR system.

Under the procedure, the licencee shall establish an Escrow account for the advance payment of applicable taxes, fees and charges in accordance with the relevant financial and treasury rules and government instructions, and have minimum balance as instructed by the licensing authority.

He said the specific amount would be automatically transferred to the official account on each transaction from the Escrow account of licencee who would be bound to transfer all processed registration cases to the concerned Motor Registration Authority office on the next working day.

Otherwise, the transaction mightbe suspended by the MRA, he added.

The DG said the department was in the process of connectivity test for the project under the supervision of the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) and hiring staff before formal launch of the system.

He said the authorised dealers would charge Rs1,500 for a car or commercial vehicle`s transaction and Rs300 for that of motor cycle or ricl(shaw as service charges. The chances of involvement of agents on behalf of dealers would be out of question because of competition among MVTLs, he added.

He said the MVTL would deposit the amount of licencee fee, renewal fee and security (cash or bank guarantee)formotorcarsRs10,000, Rs4,000 and Rs2.5million, respectively, and for motorcycles and commercial vehicles the fee amount will be Rs5,000, Rs5,000and Rs1 million; and for motor cars/motorcycles/commercial vehicles Rs20,000, Rs9,000 and Rs3million, respectively.

`Earlier, the applicants were paying Rs5,000 to Rs6,000 extra to the registered dealers for registration process and number plates but the DVR system will eliminate this practice`, Mr Gondal said.

He said the facility would benefit most the applicants from other districts in terms of time and hassle. The applicants would also be able to collect their papers and number plates after office timings, he added.

He said the computerised data of dealers would be linked with the main sever of the E&T office for receiving information of each transaction to ensure transparency.

Mr Gondal said the project, if proved successful, would be replicated across the province.