LAHORE: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has been partially successful in implementing the track and trace in the Cement sector.
Sources told that FBR has given a deadline to the powerful cement manufacturers to implement the Track and Trace (T&T) System from August 18 (Friday).
No cement bag will be permitted to leave a production site, factory, or manufacturing plant without the application of tax stamps/unique identification markings with effect from August 18.
With assistance from its Licensee Authentix Inc., US, and consortium partners AJCL Private Limited and MITAS Corporation of South Africa, the FBR had been striving for months to implement the T&T solution in the cement sector.
According to sources, numerous successful demonstrations were conducted in multiple factories to demonstrate the performance of the T&T System. However, there were delays on the part of the cement manufacturers.
Almost 70 percent of the operational cement plants are located in the North Region, while the remaining 30 percent of the capacity is located in the South Region. According to the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association, the cement sector’s production capacity has surged to approximately 83.1 million tonnes. As per a study conducted by a local institute, the cement sector achieved a gross profit of Rs. 72 billion in the first half of FY23, with a pre-tax profit of Rs 49.7 billion.
The T&T System’s capability for real-time production monitoring offers a transformative shift from conventional retrospective auditing approaches.
The real-time production monitoring will enable FBR to have access to current and comprehensive data which will facilitate proactive decision-making and ensure more accurate tax assessments. This centralized repository will provide FBR with unprecedented visibility into the sector’s production landscape.
