Govt to change vehicle age counting system

Financial Express, 27 July 2012

The government has initiated a step to change the existing vehicle age counting system to bring a uniform way so that old vehicles can be phased out from the city streets.

The Ministry of Communications (MoC) held a meeting in this connection last week with officials concerned to discuss changing the counting system and problems of the existing system.

Senior assistant secretary of the MoC Zinnath Rehana said the ministry has initiated the step, as in the present system age of a vehicle is counted as per the date sealed on its chassis.

The ministry received allegations that a section of unscrupulous businessmen import old cars by refurbishing the chassis date.

Besides, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) counts car age according to the date of registration with the authority.

“The ministry wants to count the age of a car from the date of its registration with the BRTA. Besides the age would be deducted in case of registration of used cars,” Rehana added.

A high official of the BRTA said the authority is facing difficulty in phasing out old cars from the city due to duplication of the age counting.

“When policemen seize a vehicle on the ground of old age, sometimes the owner releases it on the excuse of registration dilemma,” the official added.

The BRTA has recently identified about 14,546 vehicles, including 1,250 buses, 8,125 trucks and 2,365 minibuses, which ply the city roads unauthorised.

The BRTA also identified that 80,615 private cars have no fitness certificate. The number of registered vehicles in the city is about 5,00,000 as per the calculation of the Dhaka City Corporation’s (DCC) traffic department.

Presently, the capital’s paved roads, 1,238 kilometres in length, have been facing mounting pressure of a large number of vehicles of various types, and cannot accommodate those which cross the city from other parts of the country, the BRTA official said.

Former caretaker government adviser Akber Ali Khan said the government can curb the growth in number of vehicles in a city, seriously affected by gridlock, by imposing additional levy on persons who have more than one car.

He said the ministries concerned can impose increased income tax as well as registration and fitness certificate fees on them.