CDA argues: Road builder should get road tax

ISLAMABAD, July 1: Hard times seem to have awakened the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to its right to the motor vehicle tax (MVT) that the excise and taxation department had been collecting for the capital city`s administration for decades.

A senior CDA official asserted the right arguing that the roads the vehicles registered in Islamabad use were built by the CDA.

“We developed all these roads with CDA`s funds,” the official told Dawn requesting anonymity.

The excise and taxation department had been collecting the revenue for the last over two decades, but the CDA never lay the claim to the tax before.

Around 300,000 vehicles bearing Islamabad number plates give huge revenue in the form of MVT to the local administration.

According to media reports, the administration earns over Rs2 billion under different revenue heads which includes Rs150 million from vehicle tax.

The spokesman for the authority Ramzan Sajid confirmed that they would take up the matter with the authorities concerned.

“The authority will write to Cabinet Division and the matter will be taken up at the appropriate forums,” added the official.

However, an official in the ICT administration when approached said the ICT administration was not aware of any such move by the CDA.

“We will look into the matter if it comes to our knowledge,” said the spokesman of the ICT administration.

However, adding that local administration has been efficiently generating revenues for the federal government and “is not deducting a single penny”.

“Revenues generated through vehicle registration, token fee, etc., is sent to the federal treasury,” maintained the official.

He said that it was quite strange that the CDA was planning to claim the revenue collected by the ICT administration knowing the fact that a complete legal procedure relating to registration and MVT collection was in place at ICT`s headquarters located in Sector F-8.

Recently the deputy commissioner of the ICT Amir Ali Ahmed told the scribe that they have prepared a PC-I for upgrading the excise and taxation department for speedy collection of revenues from its motor vehicle department. The ICT plans to issue sticker of different colour coding each year for vehicles.

“A director excise and taxation looks after the procedure and several officials are managing the department of vehicle registration on modern lines,” claimed the official.