Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) lauded the reforms initiatives of Excise and Taxation Department (E&TD) of the Islamabad Capital Territory to facilitate the people in vehicles registration and making significant increase in its revenue. He urged that the FBR should emulate the good performance of E&TD to facilitate the taxpayers and improve its tax revenue. He said this while talking to Bilal Azam, Director, Excise & Taxation Department ICT during his visit to ICCI.

Ahsan Bakhtawari said that trackers should be embedded in the number plates of vehicles to control their theft. He said that a penalty should be imposed on those buyers who delay the registration of vehicles to ensure their timely registration. He said that the department should set up facilitation desks in ICCI and markets to facilitate the business community in registration of vehicles. He assured that ICCI would fully cooperate with E&TD in raising better awareness about its services in the business community.

Speaking on the occasion, Bilal Azam, Director, Excise & Taxation Department of ICT briefed the business community about various reform initiatives introduced by him due to which the tax revenue of E&TD has increased from Rs.4.6 billion to Rs.19 billion in just 3 years. He said E&TD is ready to set up vehicles’ registration desks in markets in collaboration with ICCI. He said that with the introduction of technology, the motor vehicles registration has increased to 1.5 million. He said that a mobile app has been launched to facilitate people in payment of token tax. He said that 400 stolen vehicles have been recovered by integrating E&TD data with the Safe City Project of Islamabad Police and NADRA. He said that vehicle registration facilities have also been provided in various parks of Islamabad including Islamabad Club. He said that E&TD was also providing vehicle registration service at the doorsteps if called on the helpline. He said that E&TD would continue introducing more reforms to facilitate the taxpayers.

Engr. Azhar ul Islam Zafar, Vice President ICCI said that all the departments of ICT should focus on automation and digitization to promote transparency and improve service delivery.

Khalid Iqbal Malik, Group Leader ICCI lauded the reforms brought in E&TD and urged that other departments should emulate its performance to improve service delivery.

Zafar Bakhtawari, former President ICCI and Secretary General UBG said that ICCI was ready to give awards to honest and top performing government officers who have brought innovative reforms in their respective departments.

Muhammad Ejaz Abbasi, Saif ur Rehman Khan, Rizwan Chheena, Ashfaq Chatha, Asad Aziz, Babar Chaudhry and others also spoke on the occasion and lauded the good performance of E&TD.