Motor Vehicle Registration Authority Karachi has increased the number plate fee for motorcycles from Rs500 to Rs1,450.
Moreover, the department is not issuing number plates despite a three hundred per cent increase in the fee. The matter of delay in issuing number plates for motorcycles in Sindh has been a problem for the last 15 years and about two million motorcycles are running on roads without official number plates, industry sources said.
The prices of motorcycles have already gone out of reach of the common man.
The buyers of new motorcycles have to pay Rs6,160 extra at the time of registration of the two-wheeler vehicle, which includes Rs1,450 for the number plate, Rs750 for the smart card, Rs2,160 for the registration fee, and Rs1,600 as motor vehicle tax.
Non-issuance of official number plates increases the chances of illegal use of motorcycles.
According to Muhammad Sabir Sheikh, Chairman, of the Association of Pakistan Motorcycle Assemblers, the excise department is putting a stamp on the registration slip that the number plate is not issued.
He said, the excise department used to issue official number plates for a period of six months. But now original number plates of two million motorcycles have not been issued in Sindh. In Karachi alone, 950 motorcycles are registered daily and more than 25,000 a month, but their number plates are not being issued, Sabir added.
