Monitor & record production through UIM at factories: Manufacturers, importers will be held accountable: SRO

ISLAMABAD: The track and trace system needs to securely monitor and record production of excisable commodities through the application of Unique Identification Marking (UIM) at the production plants of tobacco products, cement, sugar, and fertiliser.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) was responding to various queries of bidders/applicants of the track and trace system to be installed at the factories of tobacco products, cement, sugar, and fertiliser.

The FBR has informed the applicants that the SRO for manufacturers of tobacco products, cement, sugar, and fertiliser is to ensure that the UIMs are affixed to each product item that are produced and/or imported. This is a responsibility, to which manufacturers and importers will be held accountable.

The SRO also holds that a third party, duly competent and licensed, will be held responsible to implement, operate and maintain the hardware, software, materials, and services required to apply, verify and enable monitoring and recording of production and import volumes, as well as supporting the field audits, and verification by law enforcement users and consumers, and to ensure the integrity of the information generated by the system (the solution). These responsibilities are therefore different and complementary in nature, the FBR added.

The secure delivery process includes the entire activities starting from printing the UIMs up to affixing the UIMs onto product items in secure environments. The Evaluation Framework for this Clause is included in the IFL Evaluation Framework for the technical solution.

About the experience in government and corporate sector, the FBR responded that the experience profile of the applicant needs to address its engagement with government-related track and trace solutions that supported tax stamp initiatives/UIM, and the government and corporate-related track and trace experience, but not corporate experience alone.

First, the applicant needs to demonstrate a current or recent involvement in this field. Second, its experience profile needs to include at least three effective contracts for government and corporate-related track and trace solutions in three different countries over the past five years, the FBR added.

The system will communicate data between manufacturing sites and import stations, on the one hand, and the MIS, on the other hand, securely over the internet. Likewise, data communications between the MIS and the FBR Control Room will happen securely over the internet.

The system and all of its components and functional areas (including data communications between system components) form part of the licensee's responsibility in terms of design, implementation, operation, and maintenance.

The licensee will provide, implement, operate, and maintain the system at manufacturing sites and import stations, including the applicators. The applicators will be imported by the licensee and charged separately to the respective manufacturers, the FBR added.

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