Dear Editor,

The GRA, after being validly criticized by citizens of this country for the confusion and congestion which prevails each year when motor vehicle licences have to be renewed, and after having its aggressive Commissioner General, in true Jagdeoite fashion, delight in ‘busing’ and ‘cussing down’ these very citizens who pay him a handsome tax-free salary every month, has decided to introduce a new system which it says will alleviate the confusion and congestion.

Under the new dispensation, the motor vehicle licence will be issued for a year commencing on the anniversary of the date of the first registration of your vehicle and expiring on the anniversary of that first registration in the following year.

This means if my vehicle was first registered on January 1, 2004, my licence will in each year from 2012 onwards be issued for a period of one year from the January 1, 2012 renewal and will expire on January 1, 2013 and so on. All well and good.

There is however a problem. In 2012 when this new procedure comes into existence, suppose my car was first registered say in September 2005, this means the licence for 2012 will be issued in September 2012 and will be valid for the period of September 2012 to September 2013. I would like someone from GRA to explain to me what happens for the period January 2012-September 2012. Surely my vehicle would be unlicensed for that period.

Has this lacuna occurred to anyone at the GRA? What do I say to a policeman who stops me, say, in March 2012 and I do not have a motor vehicle licence for 2012 because for 2012 my licence would be issued in September for the period of September 2012 to September 2013?

Yours faithfully,
John Persaud