Caretaker Provincial Minister for Communications & Works and Excise & Taxation Department Bilal Afzal has ordered the elimination of agents and tout mafia from excise offices across Punjab.
He was visiting Excise Office Faridkot Lahore on Tuesday. Secretary Excise Masood Mukhtar, Director General (DG) Muhammad Ali, Director Rana Intikhab and other officers were also present there. Bilal Afzal conducted a detailed inspection and took briefing on the system of staff attendance, vehicle registration, vehicles’ transfer, token tax and property tax collection and delivery of number plates of vehicles
When the provincial minister reached the office, the citizens there complained of unnecessary delay in the matter of registration and transfer of vehicles to which the concerned Director told that most of the problems in that matter were coming from the side of Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB).
Bilal Afzal directed that PITB authorities should clear the hurdles in the automated system within a week so that citizens’ time and money were not wasted due to system malfunctions. He heard the complaints of the citizens and issued remedial orders on the spot.
While visiting the number plates section, the provincial minister ordered the immediate delivery of thousands of number plates lying there for a long time and directed to contact the owners through phones if the plates were undelivered on given address, on which the secretary assured that the implementation of his instructions would start from tomorrow.
The Excise Minister while checking the arrival time of the employees through the recording of CCTV cameras directed that the presence of the staff at their seats should be ensured at the scheduled times so that the citizens were not to face any trouble. He directed the Excise Inspectors to raise the property tax collection above 55 percent in a week. The provincial minister also directed to restore the departmental lock-up to the previous place.
