Chad Bryan, Gleaner Writer

On April 2, the Tax Administration of Jamaica (TAJ) rolled out a new Motor Vehicle Registration Certificate (MVRC). The move is part of the tax authority's overall security-enhancement strategy and, at the same time, aims at improved efficiency of the motor-vehicle registration process. The change was made to coincide with the start of the new fiscal year.

Therefore, persons who do new motor-vehicle registration or renewals now will be issued with a new MVRC.

Communications officer at the TAJ, Leighton Beckles, explained that because of the nature of the authority's business, there is a constant need to evaluate the system, devising strategies to safeguard against unscrupulous activities.

"We are constantly evaluating our systems and, as part of our security protocol, it is very routine for us to assess our systems, putting them under stress tests. By this I mean putting them under scrutiny within the operational areas, looking for loopholes," Beckles said. "We have to plug these loopholes to minimise any unscrupulous activities."

He declined to give the reason for the choice of colour, citing security concerns. However, the new MVRC is pink, changed from yellow. A new numbering system has been added to improve the security tracking of each individual  certificate. Beckles assured customers
that motor-vehicle registration rates remain the
same.

Beckles also pointed out that at the last
revison, routine security enhancements were done. The motor-vehicle
licence stickers were changed to show 'void when they were peeled off.
Therefore, he said, persons who wanted to adjust the sticker could no
longer do so due to the security feature, which was largely done to
reduce unscrupulous behaviour.

"We have an obligation
to protect the revenue, so these are a few of the steps we take to
protect the revenue, as well as it ensures that we protect our clientele
who may fall victim to a number of unscrupulous activities. There are
some people out there who try to clone documents, or whatever the case
might be," Beckles said.

Beckles added that the new
MRVC, while not preventing motor-vehicle theft, will minimise the
vulnerability of the TAJ systems and make compromising documentation
more difficult.

The MRVC was last changed seven years
ago. The Gleaner reported in January 2006 that a
computer-generated certficate would now the eliminate transcription
errors possible with handwritten certificates. It was also stated that
the computer-generated certificate would reduce the processing time for
transactions.