Consortium selected to install FBR’s track and trace system

ISLAMABAD: In order to place Track and Trace System to gauge the real production of major tax evading sectors including tobacco, sugar, cement, fertilizer and beverages, the FBR is all set to award contract to M/S AJCL Consortium being the highest bidder on technical and financial grounds.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has formally informed M/S AJCL Consortium that the Licensing Committee vide Evaluation Report had declared the Consortium as the “most advantageous bidder” due to their highest combined score in technical evaluation (80 percent) and financial evaluation (20 percent) in the bidding. Now the FBR intends to grant license to M/S AJCL Consortium as per Licensing Rules 2019 read with PPRA Rules 2004.

The much awaited track and trace system could not be awarded in the last over a decade despite several efforts. Now under the IMF program employing the IT based track and trace system to avoid tax evasion is one of the binding conditions. The last bidding was scrapped by Islamabad High Court on certain grounds.

The FBR has completed the required evaluation process for granting the five-year license to an IT-based electronic monitoring (Track and Trace System) of specified goods i.e. tobacco, cement, sugar and fertilizer. Initially 11 bids were received out of which 8 technically qualified. The technical scores were awarded on the basis of specified evaluation criteria. To ensure transparency, technical scores of all technically compliant bidders were displayed for all the participants prior to opening the financial bids.

Afterwards, financial bids were opened on Feb 1st 2021 at FBR Headquarter, Islamabad attended by 8 technically compliant applicants and bidders. The bids were publicly opened by the 7-member licensing committee, headed by Karamatullah Khan Chaudhry.

The installation of the Track and Trace System would be a game changer for improving the revenue generation and curbing counterfeit products in the market. The FBR expects to start installing UIMs (tax stamps) on various products from July 2021, it concluded.