By
Prof. Dr. Mohammad Taieb
Every citizen of Pakistan has the legal right to purchase a vehicle registered in one province and transfer its ownership to another province by following the prescribed legal procedure. To facilitate such transactions, Pakistan has an established Excise and Taxation system that regulates the purchase, sale, registration, and transfer of motor vehicles in accordance with the law.
Over the years, many residents of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have lawfully purchased vehicles registered in Punjab from their original owners. After completing all legal formalities at the Excise and Taxation Office in Peshawar, they transferred ownership into their names and continued to pay the annual token tax regularly. At no stage did any government authority raise an objection or notify them of any outstanding tax liability.
Subsequently, a policy was adopted under which the revenue generated from the annual token tax was assigned to the province where the vehicle remained originally registered and whose registration number it continued to display. As a result, the Government of Punjab does not recognize or credit the token tax paid by these vehicle owners in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The situation has now become deeply troubling. The Punjab Government is demanding that these vehicle owners pay, for a second time, the token tax for all the previous years, despite the fact that those taxes were lawfully paid in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Moreover, Punjab authorities are refusing to update the vehicle records unless the entire amount is paid again.
This demand is not merely unfair. It is a classic case of double taxation. A fundamental principle of law is that once a statutory liability has been lawfully discharged, it cannot be imposed again for the same period. These citizens fulfilled their legal obligations in good faith, and the taxes were duly accepted by the competent government authorities. Requiring them to pay the same taxes again years later has no sound legal basis and is inconsistent with the principles of justice, legal certainty, and administrative fairness.
If there are administrative, technical, or financial issues relating to revenue sharing or record management between provincial governments, those issues should be resolved through intergovernmental coordination. Law-abiding citizens should not be compelled to bear the consequences of bureaucratic inefficiency or policy inconsistencies over which they have no control.
The fair and lawful course of action is for the Government of Punjab to waive all tax liabilities that have already been legally discharged in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Only where the token tax for a particular year was genuinely unpaid should the outstanding amount be claimed. Such an approach would uphold the rule of law, protect citizens’ legitimate expectations, and promote good governance.
Governments exist to serve the public by ensuring fairness, legal certainty, and administrative efficiency, not to penalize citizens for failures in coordination between public institutions. It is therefore hoped that the Government of Punjab will review its current policy, bring it into conformity with constitutional and legal principles, and relieve affected vehicle owners of this unjustified financial burden. Such a decision would not only uphold the Constitution and the rule of law but also reinforce public confidence in the fairness and integrity of government institutions.
