WESTERN BUREAU:
MANY motorists are still driving without proper permits because the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has missed a March 31 deadline to clear a backlog of driver's licence identification cards, which were approved late last year.
A number of persons are still awaiting the identification cards, some of which were issued as far back as October. The IRD, while admitting that the backlog still exists, has so far failed to respond to Sunday Gleaner questions sent three weeks ago seeking to find out when the licences would be issued and the backlog cleared.
"We are aware of it (the continued backlog)," Paula Ferguson, the public relations officer of the IRD in Kingston said then, before requesting that additional questions be sent in.
In January, the IRD acknowledged that more than 10,000 persons islandwide who renewed or were issued drivers licences between October and November last year were still awaiting the identification cards. The printing of licences was suspended during this period, to facilitate the implementation of a new look identification card, which incorporates the drivers licence number with the Taxpayer Registration Number (TRN). The new system took effect on November 1.
The IRD had announced that its employees were working overtime to clear the backlog by March 31.
But when The Sunday Gleaner telephoned the Savanna-la-Mar tax office last week, a clerk informed that they had not yet received some of the licences that were approved during that period.
"We got some of the October licences, but the November ones are not here yet," she said.
A woman, who asked not to be named in this story, said she had not received her licence, which was approved in Savanna-la-Mar last November. She was not given a reason for the delay, she said, despite several calls to the tax office.
"Every month when I call they tell me to call back," she told The Sunday Gleaner last Monday. "When I called last week, they told me that maybe it is there and was sent back for corrections. I asked the clerk what type of corrections could the licence need and I was not consulted. She said she didn't know and that I should call back next week."
Meanwhile, the police has advised that those who have not yet received a licence should carry along the receipt from the Collector of Taxes, and the expired driver's licence or provisional licence when driving, to avoid unnecessary confrontation with the police.
