The Excise and Taxation Department (E&T) held an auction for the supply of number plates for cars and motorbikes on Tuesday. This, however, will not end the problem of number plates not being issued since February 2012, The Express Tribune has learnt.
The German firm 3M used to supply number plates to the E&T Department. However, after a dispute over 240,000 plates in September 2011, the E&T Department blacklisted 3M. When the department tried to auction the contract for supply of plates, 3M obtained a stay order from a court. The E&T Department complained that 3M used to manufacture its plates in Germany but later started manufacturing them in Karachi.
The department stated that it was not notified of that change and they continued paying the price for imported number plates.
The court passed a temporary judgement in favour of the E&T Department and 3M was directed to supply 240,000 number plates to the department.
These number plates were used to clear the backlog for plates for cars. Meanwhile more than 600,000 motorbike owners have been waiting for their number plates since February 2012.
However, the number plates for the car number series LEC-13 introduced in March 2013 will not been issued till the stay order is lifted.
The E&T department has issued as many as 90,000 numbers for motorbikes.
Because of the freeze in supply of plates, motorcyclists have to get plates from local vendors.
Motor Registration Authority Syed Ali Bakhtiar Kirmani in charge of new bikes told The Express Tribune that several people had complained about the shortage of plates, but they could not help them. “They will be given number plates as soon as the matter is resolved,” he said. The E&T Department has issued twice as many numbers as it did last year, he said.
The auction held on Tuesday would help the E&T Department pick a company to order number plates from once the court lifts the stay order, Kirmani said.
The department had tried to select a company through an auction in March, but the bidding companies had all failed the ISO 7,591 certification test. The companies that have participated in auction include AGCN, Inbox, 3 M and Symbol. If they pass the ISO 7,591 certification test carried out by the Metrological Department at the University of Engineering and Technology in the next ten days, they might be given the contract.
Zunair Ahmed, a software house owner, said he had applied for a number plate eight months ago and it had still not arrived.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 10th, 2013.