|
Hunt on for vehicles with old numbers
2006-01-06 09:22:11
By Guardian Reporter
An operation to clear the roads of vehicles still bearing old registration numbers has been launched in several regions.
Traffic police and Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) officials are currently on the lookout for offending motorists in Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro, Mwanza, Manyara, Dodoma, Mara, Arusha, Mbeya and Iringa regions, according to Traffic Commandant Peter Kivuyo.
’I have already directed regional traffic officers to work closely with TRA managers in their respective regions with a view to making the operation a success,’ he said in Dar es Salaam.
A number of vehicles had been impounded and taken to TRA yards since the operation began on January 1, he added. However, Kivuyo could not state the exact number.
He said the operation would be extended to other parts of the country in the next few days.
Earlier, TRA Public Relations Officer Jack Meena said the authority had asked for the assistance of traffic police in impounding vehicles having old registration numbers that were still on the road despite their owners having failed to meet the December 31 deadline for acquiring new numbers.
He said the impounded vehicles would be held at TRA yards as arrangements to penalise their owners were made.
Meena dismissed complaints about long queues at TRA motor vehicle registration offices and the delay in acquiring the new numbers, and blamed this on vehicle owners scrambling for the new numbers at the last minute.
’People should not complain. The exercise began way back on May 21, 2003, and they had ample time to apply for and get new registration numbers without any fuss,’ he said.
Most of the vehicles getting new numbers were in Dar es Salaam, Meena said and added that 206,584 vehicles had been registered countrywide as of November 30, last year. TRA collected 12,813,591,500/- from the exercise.
The centralised registration of motor vehicles adopted three years ago is aimed at curbing tax evasion, checking car thefts and introducing number plate uniformity, among other things.
|
