Pakistan Gets Green Light to Implement Track & Trace

The Sindh High Court in Pakistan has reversed a stay order imposed earlier this year on a licence agreement issued by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for a track and trace system on local and imported tobacco, cement, sugar and fertiliser.

The lifting of the stay means the FBR is now finally free to move ahead with the system, which has been over 10 years in the making.

The licence agreement, which covers an initial five-year term, with a three-year extension option, had been awarded to the consortium of Authentix, MITAS Corporation and AJCL Private Ltd, in March this year, before being suspended a week later as a result of lawsuits filed by two of the losing bidders.

The new system will provide for production monitoring, product movement control and product authentication through the use of secure and non-intrusive technologies installed at manufacturing lines, as well as dedicated handheld equipment, smartphone applications, and highly secure digitised tax stamps.

‘Pakistan has been attempting to get a tax stamp programme off the ground for over 10 years and each time it has made an attempt the project has been somehow interrupted,’ said Michael Eads, a track and trace expert and customs/IT consultant to FBR.

‘At some point, the country is going to need to overcome these barriers and get on with it,’ he added.

Well, it looks like that time has now arrived.