This was stated by Adviser to the Chief Minister for Excise and Taxation M.A. Jalil while addressing a radio press conference here on Friday.
He described the working of MVT Wing as extremely defective and said there were scores of instances where one vehicle was registered more than once or even such vehicles had been registered which were brought without payment of custom and other duties.
He said he had taken notice of problems faced by people at MVT Wing and he would take such steps as could mitigate the sufferings of visitors.
Jalil said that among the two proposals, the one found to he effective and practical would be implemented. He said, that would also help eliminate the role of "agent 'working in and outside the MVT Wing.
He said he had totally rejected a proposal that those agents should be issued licenses, adding then what utility of WIT wing staff would be left if the registration work was vested to "agents."
To a question the Advisor said the plans were afoot for total computerisation of MVT wing and a proposal was under consideration to convert the existing 40page registration book into a computer based registration card of the book size. He said he had had presentation on that proposal from various IT firms.
Regarding safety of records at MVT Wing, M.A. Jalil said the work was being done on introducing various security features including having the backup of the record at more than one places.
He told a questioner that MV tax has been computerised in Karachi only and steps were being taken to introduce it in other cities too.
The Advisor further said, registration of vehicles coming from manufacturing plants had also been made conditional, those would be registered only after the permanent and existing addresses of the buyer along with photo copy of NIC were provided. He said that restriction had been imposed to curb the irregularities detected in that regard.
Answering a question, Jalil said that no new wine shop license had been issued since 1993 and on the contrary some licenses cancelled during that period.
He said in view of inflow of liquor from Balochistan and the Punjab, it had been decided that henceforth the Quetta Distillery and Murre Brewery would indicate on each bottle that the product was meant for Sindh province and would also indicate the batch number and date of manufacture.
He further said, to check illegal flow of liquor into Sindh and specially to Karachi, the trucks bringing the consignment from Balochistan or Punjab would be escorted by excise personnel who would keep handing over the truck to other excise officials of the region being entered into.
He pointed out that in Balochistan the number of non-Muslims was around 20 to 25 thousand but as against that some 1.25 lac liquor licenses were issued. He said it was apparent that the excess liquor finds its way into Sindh province. He said, the entire quantity was not used in Balochistan but an estimated 90 percent of the production was used in Sindh.
The Advisor informed that the department had selected some good reputed officials who would patrol along the Sindh boundary with Balochistan to check illegal flow of liquor into Sindh.
However, he pointed out, the excise department had been facing many problems as it had no patrolling vehicles nor wireless sets and weapons.
He said the concerned department had been approached for providing such facilities.
To a question, the Advisor said he was not satisfied with the service being provided by E&T staff which showed their incompetence.
He told another questioner that targets given to the department although given to them at lower level, had been achieved with minor adjustments but those should have to be given at the higher level.