ISLAMABAD: The federal government has made licensing of brand names mandatory for selling unregistered products in the market.
In this regard, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) issued a procedure for issuance of brand registration certificates for tobacco, sugar, fertilizer, cement, and beverages vide STGO 7/2021.
“In exercise of the powers conferred under section 40E of the Sales Tax Act, 1990, the board is pleased to notify the procedure for licensing of brand name for specified sector mentioned in rule 150ZF of sales tax rules 2006,” said the FBR in a notification.
According to the notification, all existing and new manufacturers of the afore-mentioned specified sectors are required to register their brand for each product with FBR before selling the same in the market.
All existing and new manufacturers are required to submit an application to the project director (TTS) for the issuance of a brand registration certificate for all of their products. For this purpose, each manufacturer shall provide the requisite information such as manufacturer’s name, trade name, STRN, NTN, date, and place of incorporation, name of directors, precise business location of manufacturing unit, and details of the product.
The office of the project director shall scrutinise all the applications and initiate the process of registration of the products as per the notified procedure.
The project shall also collect the registration fee besides taking appropriate measures to detect and investigate any irregular and fraudulent practice in the operation of the brand registration.
The project office shall also update the registration status of the brand name to the member operation on a fortnightly basis.
It has been further notified by the FBR that if any of the manufacturers fail to obtain the brand registration certificate from FBR, it shall not be allowed to sell their un-registered products in the market.
It is pertinent to note that the Federal government inserted section 40E in the Sales Tax Act, 1990 vide Finance Act, 2021, which empowers FBR to issue brand licensing certificates to the manufacturers of specified sectors such as tobacco, sugar, fertilizer, cement, and beverages.
