3 excise and taxation officials booked over fake registration of vehicles

LAHORE: Punjab’s Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) has lodged a case against three excise and taxation officials over their alleged involvement in fake registration of vehicles, which inflicted billions of rupees loss on the provincial kitty.

According to the ACE, those booked in the case include an excise and taxation officer and an excise inspector. They registered hundreds of vehicles through bogus auctions in cahoots with individuals for monetary benefits, it said.

An ACE official said the accused registered as many as 465 vehicles on fake vouchers. More than 30,000 loader trucks and buses with fake registration numbers are available in the market, he said. A truck having the registration number of a Vespa scooter is plying in the province while another truck is registered as a Kawasaki motorcycle in the excise record, the official disclosed.

The anti-corruption establishment said it would soon arrest all the men nominated in the case.