Fate Of NCP Vehicles In Erstwhile FATA, PATA Yet To Decide; KP Starts Registration For Record: Ghazan Jamal

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2021 ) :Newly merged tribal districts of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) are rapidly making progress in every sector as the government departments have started functioning there.

Schools, colleges, hospitals, courts, police stations, road infrastructure, business activities, peace security and above all return of Internally Displaced Persons to their native areas all indicate the once considered a volatile region is soon going to stand at par with other developed areas of the country.

The promises and commitments made to the people of these are being fulfilled by the government one after another, however, one thing still awaits to see the light of the day—regularization of Non-Custom Paid (NCP) vehicles.

The owners of such vehicles eagerly await the government's decision. If launched the amnesty scheme would not facilitate the people, but would also earn a great deal of revenue to the national exchequer in this era of financial constraints, especially when the COVID-19 has encircled world' mightiest economies.

When contact Special Assistant to Chief Minister KP for Excise and Taxation Ghazan Jamal, told this agency that it was domain of the Federal government to decide the fate of these vehicles, however he added that KP had already started registration of these vehicles for maintaining record of the number of vehicles and the owners so that these could not be misused.

He said as per the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan several relaxations were given to people of merged areas for the transition period so that they could settle in their areas without any difficulty.

To a question, he said the Excise and Taxation department had installed its pickets at all entry and exist points in merged district as well as in PATA to have strict check on movement of NCP vehicles.

Newly merged districts of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA) Gilgit – Baltistan (GB) Azad Jammu and Kashmir as well as many regions in the country see a mushroom growth of NCP vehicles.

The number of NCP vehicles in 2013 accounted for 2.3 million, according to a finding published by print media. Surely, this number would have gone much higher after eight years.

The PPP Government, few months before end of its tenure in 2013, had announced such a scheme in March. Some estimates suggested under the scheme the then government collected 60-70 billion rupees in a month.

The response to the scheme was so enormous that the government had to stretch the scheme to April the same year.

Thousands of NCP vehicles were registered at their time. It not just provided economic cushion to the government, but also facilitated the owners of vehicles.

NCP vehicles are a permanent phenomenon. They are rolling on the roads almost everywhere in the country and sometimes even used in criminal and terrorism activities. Customs Department constantly keeps an eye on them, conducts raids and carries out forfeitures. But, this doesn't stop NCP vehicles to come into the country with even greater numbers. Regularising NCP vehicles will put an end to this illegal activity.