ISLAMABAD, Mar 05 (APP): The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) here Friday signed a contract with AJCL along with its lead partner Authentix Inc. USA and Mitas Corporation of South Africa to operationalize Track & Trace Solution on tobacco, cement, sugar and fertilizer sectors.
According to an FBR press statement issued here, the contract was signed by Dr Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmed, Member (IR-Operations), FBR; Kevin McKenna, CEO and President of Authentix Inc USA; Sten Bertelsen, from Mitas Corporation (Pty) South Africa and Omer Jaffer CEO of AJCL Private Limited.
The Track and Trace Solution is to be rolled out across the tobacco, cement, sugar and fertilizer sectors from July 1, 2021 in Pakistan.
The system would be helpful in enhancing tax revenue, reducing counterfeiting and preventing the smuggling of illicit goods through the implementation of a robust, nationwide, electronic monitoring system of production volumes and by the affixation of more than 5 billion tax stamps on various products at the production stage, which will enable FBR to track the goods throughout the supply chain.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmed remarked that FBR would
be working closely with AJCL Consortium during the rollout of the program across different industries on very aggressive timelines.
Meanwhile, Kevin McKenna of Authentix stated that like in other countries, it was expected that the program would help provide a transformational boost to the local economy, enhance revenue and make the tax collection process more transparent for the benefit of industry.
Omer Jaffer, CEO AJCL, said that the consortium was looking forward to working with FBR to configure and implement the various components of the solution, including the tax stamp application and production monitoring equipment and ramping up the production of the specialized tax stamps that would act as unique identification marks on the products.
The statement said that the installation of the track and trace system in the specified sectors was believed to be a game changer and would bring more than 45million tons of cement, more than 4 billion sticks of tobacco cigarettes, more than 4million tons of sugar and more than 30 million tons of fertilizer into the tax net as well enhance digitization of economic activity, improve revenue forecasting and curb counterfeit products in the market.
