FBR signs contract to trace tax-evading sectors

ISLAMABAD: Amid the Islamabad High Court issued notices to parties concerned on a writ petition filed by Reliance IT Solution against awarding contract, the FBR on Friday signed a contract with AJCL Consortium to place Track and Trace System for the major tax-evading sectors, including cigarettes, sugar, cement, fertilizer, and beverages.

The Islamabad High Court issued notices to the parties concerned but did not grant a stay order to halt the process. Now the FBR on Friday signed a contract with the AJCL consortium by declaring that there was no conflict of interest as alleged by the parties concerned.

A top official of the FBR told The News that the evaluation committee had taken up a conflict of interest issue and found that there was no evidence for establishing any such thing.

When contacted, FBR’s Member Inland Revenue (Operation) Dr. Muhammad Ashfaque Ahmed said on Friday said that the FBR had evaluated the process best to its abilities and found nothing wrong.

He said that efforts were underway to place Track and Trace since 2008 but every time it ended up into a failure because of different allegations but this time all rules and procedures were followed.

The Islamabad High Court did not grant a stay order so the FBR decided to sign a contract with the consortium that could deliver on the ground. “The winning consortium will charge 75 paisa per stamp through this track and trace system from the industrial enterprises,” said the official.

This system, according to the official, will be rolled out from July 1, 2021, and in its first stage a pilot project would kick-start from the tobacco sector.

According to the FBR’s announcement made here on Friday: “A contract has been signed between the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and 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 here at FBR Headquarters, Islamabad on 5th March, 2021.