22 cos show interest to collect motor vehicle tax online

Mahmuda ShaolinbrThe Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) is going to appoint a 'service provider' by October this year to enable motor vehicle owners pay their Motor Vehicle Tax (MVT) using online services from January next year, officials of BRTA said. brBRTA floated a tender seeking 'expression of interest' (EOI) from financial and non-financial institutions wherein a total of 22 companies showed eagerness, said a BRTA official. brWe've received a total of 22 EOIs for the job and we'll select four to seven companies by next week. We'll finally select one company by the next two months and award the contract, Sitangshu Shekhar Bishwas, Deputy Director (Engineering) of BRTA told FE Wednesday. brThe selected company will introduce online motor vehicle tax and fees collection within 90 days after getting final approval from BRTA, he added. brThe service providing company will get commission on the amount it will collect. brAt present, Bangladesh Postal Department (BPD) is collecting MVT and other fees manually through its 91 post offices. In 2007, BPO launched an online service in its Dhaka's General Post Office (GPO) and Mirpur BRTA Post Office. BPD charged three per cent as commission on the amount it collected, the BRTA official said. brOur objective is to provide a competitive and standard service to the customers who want to pay the MVT and fees without any harassment, said Sitangshu Shekhar Bishwas. brReplying to a question, he said that the BRTA would appoint a company that would charge the lowest commission rate and offer the best services. brThe online service will ease the processing time. It will replace the age-old manual system, which is mostly plagued with errors, costly and time-consuming. The online service is guaranteed to be error-free, he told the FE.