ISLAMABAD, Sep 14 (APP):Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja said on Monday that the Prime Minister’s special petrol relief scheme had been designed to facilitate eligible vehicle users, including those using rented motorcycles and rickshaws for their livelihoods. Addressing a press conference along with Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar and Federal Minister for Petroleum Ali Pervaiz Malik, she said the government had reviewed …
Petrol relief scheme to cover motorcycles, rickshaws, vehicles up to 800cc: Shaza Fatima
ISLAMABAD, Sep 14 (APP):Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja said on Monday that the Prime Minister’s special petrol relief scheme had been designed to facilitate eligible vehicle users, including those using rented motorcycles and rickshaws for their livelihoods.
Addressing a press conference along with Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar and Federal Minister for Petroleum Ali Pervaiz Malik, she said the government had reviewed lessons from the previous phase of the programme and introduced measures to make registration easier for the public.
“During the last programme, we registered motorcycles only in the names of their owners, but registration remained very low,” she said.
Shaza Fatima said ownership would not necessarily be required for motorcycle and rickshaw users operating vehicles rented from others. However, ownership of an 800cc vehicle would be required to avail the facility.
She said many vehicles were being used on open transfer letters, while some had been purchased and handed over to family members or staff. Similarly, many workers operated rented rickshaws and motorcycles to earn their livelihoods.
“The Prime Minister has closely reviewed the programme and directed that it should not unnecessarily restrict people from benefiting from the scheme,” she said.
However, she said certain verification requirements were necessary to prevent misuse of public funds and protect genuine beneficiaries.
Under the current process, applicants have to send four pieces of information to 971: their CNIC number, vehicle number plate, province where the vehicle is registered and the vehicle’s registration date.
Shaza Fatima explained that the first verification would establish whether the mobile number being used for registration was registered against the same CNIC.
“This is important because no one should be able to use their phone number to enter someone else’s CNIC and generate a token,” she said.
She said the second verification involved the vehicle’s number plate, province and registration date. She explained that the same registration number could exist in different provinces because vehicle registration data was maintained separately by each provincial Excise department, as well as by Islamabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
“Therefore, knowing the province is essential,” she said, adding that the information would be sent to the relevant Excise department for verification.
The scheme will benefit owners of motorcycles, rickshaws, Qingqi motorcycles and vehicles up to 800cc. Eligible citizens will receive an Rs100 per litre discount on petrol.
Motorcycle and Qingqi owners will be eligible for up to 20 litres per month, while owners of vehicles up to 800cc can avail themselves of up to 30 litres.
The ministry said vehicle verification had been fully automated in coordination with provincial transport and Excise departments.
For registration, citizens will have to send an SMS from a SIM registered in their own name in the following format:
REG [CNIC without dashes] [vehicle number without spaces or dashes] [provincial code] [vehicle registration date]
A confirmation message will be sent after successful registration.
Registered citizens will then have to send TOK to 9771 to obtain a fuel token before visiting a petrol station.
The token will be presented at the petrol station and verified before subsidised petrol is provided.
She acknowledged that some people might initially face difficulty entering the required information but said the verification checks were essential to prevent fraudulent registration of vehicles belonging to someone else.
She said the minimum verification measures had been retained to ensure transparency and safeguard public money.
Shaza Fatima Khawaja said the government had designed the digital mechanism for the Prime Minister’s petrol relief scheme so that citizens would not necessarily need internet access or smartphones to register.
She said an SMS-based registration system had been introduced to ensure that people without smartphones could also benefit from the scheme.
“The easiest option would have been to develop an app and ask everyone to download it and register,” she said. “But the SMS system has been arranged so that whether someone has a smartphone or not should not affect their ability to use the scheme.”
She said a dedicated helpline had also been established for petrol pumps to address connectivity and application-related issues.
Shaza Fatima said the separate call centre would provide support to petrol pumps in coordination with the programme and the Ministry of Petroleum.
She said the arrangements were aimed at ensuring that technical or connectivity issues did not prevent eligible citizens from availing themselves of the relief scheme.
