No extension! Not even as long lines of those attempting to get their vehicles to pass inspections formed outside of the licensing offices throughout the country
Works and Transport Minster Rohan Sinanan says citizens had enough time to have their vehicles inspected.
“The complaint about more time and so, I don’t buy that at all,” said Sinanan during an interview with Guardian Media.
“The moratorium was for five months. What it simply meant is that you have five months where we asked the license officers and police to ease up on the charging for the non-inspection.”
Sinanan said the Ministry of Works and Transport granted a moratorium of five months in 2018 for vehicle owners to get their vehicle inspected.
“If you get a five months moratorium, why should we extend that beyond five years?” Sinanan asked.
“That five months came about because of the T vehicles, we recognised there were not ample bays for inspection. If your vehicle has to go for inspection now, it meant that the last time your vehicle went for inspection is over two years ago. So it meant that a lot of people would not have inspected their vehicles for two to three years.
“What actually happened is that people waited for the last week to go and have their vehicles inspected.”
Sinanan said inspection was not a revenue earner for the country but a safety issue.
“There are a lot of vehicles we are pulling up that is definitely not safe for the road so we cannot let this moratorium continue because the normal practise is that everybody will lay back again and wait for the last two to three days to rush to go to the licensing offices.”
Sinanan assured vehicle owners who got their vehicles inspected but did not receive stickers that they would not be charged.
“Once you were inspected and you have that inspection certificate that is what is important. The garages will work with the customers to ensure those who did not get a certificate at the time they were inspected, will be called in and they (garages) will make that available to them,” he said.
