Is your car registered Online?
With only three weeks left for the voluntary car revalidation exercise to end, Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), the custodians for motor vehicle records, have asked motorists to take their manual registration logbooks for conversion to the online system.
By Samuel Balagadde
With only three weeks left for the voluntary car revalidation exercise to end, Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), the custodians for motor vehicle records, have asked motorists to take their manual registration logbooks for conversion to the online system.
The online vehicle registration system was launched last year and motorists with already registered vehicles were required to revalidate their documents by taking the ordinary paper logbooks for conversion to the new ones that are captured online.
Online registration is meant to reduce the costs and time involved in registering a car. It is also meant to reduce the crowds that used to be at URA offices. The exercise if successful will eliminate cases of double registration of cars and fraud.
The online car registration eliminated the role of clearing agents who were involved in selling cars and fraud because car owners are in charge of processing their own logbooks.
If the registration process ends and you still have no logbook, then you can never sell your car to anyone because you have no official document (logbook) that warrants car sale transaction. Ninety nine percent of domestic taxes are being handled online.
Essence of online registration
The exercise, which is free of charge, is coming to an end effective June 30 and URA will decide on the fate of those who will not have revalidated their car logbooks.
URA is currently rolling out tax hubs in the city centre, suburbs and upcountry locations to enable motorists know more about the exercise. This is done by briefing them on the procedure that they should follow and where to get a logbook.
A clients’ specialist with URA, who headed a city centre tax hub on Wilson Road on Monday, said there are many motorists who have registered their cars, but a lot more vehicles had not had their documents revalidated.
He said many motorists have been reluctant to apply for the new Tax Identification Numbers (TIN) that facilitates the online vehicle registration systems, yet the whole process is free of charge in all URA offices across the country.
The specialist said the process is meant to help car owners who have fraudulently registered cars to rectify the problem by paying the taxes due to a car.
The hard copy transfer of ownership forms previously issued by URA is no longer working under the online vehicle registration systems whereby the registered owner of the car has the powers to effect the transfer.
For cases where the registered owners died, the buyer must take legal action through advertising in newspapers and swearing an affidavit in court.
He said those with vehicles in the names of the deceased should handle matters with the office of the administrator general.
Also, the online vehicle registration system involves motor vehicles, motorcycles and ships.
Sarah Banage, URA’s assistant commissioner, public and corporate affairs, said the exercise aims at improving service delivery.
“In the past, registration was sometimes done through an agent, and in some instances, people were cheated by middlemen. With the new system, car owners have a chance to process a logbook without the help of middlemen,” Banage explained.