Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has successfully finalized the evaluation process for the grant of five-year license for a Track and Trace System, an IT-based solution for electronic monitoring of specified goods, i.e. Tobacco, Cement, Sugar and Fertilizer.

FBR initially received 11 bids and out of which only 8 bids were technically qualified. The bids were assigned technical scores on the basis of a specified evaluation criteria to evaluate them.

Moreover, the technical scores of all technically compliant bidders were displayed for all attendees to see prior to opening of the financial bids to ensure complete transparency.

The review meeting, held at FBR headquarters in Islamabad on 1st February 2021, opened the financial bids for eight technically sound applications. The financial bids were publicly opened by the 7-member licensing committee, headed by Karamatullah Khan Chaudhry.

The technical and financial scores of the eight valid applications were then compiled. According to the Licensing Rules 2019 and the PAPRA Rules 2004, the bid for M/s. AJCL/Authentix/MITAS was found to be the most favorable.

FBR has stated that installation of the Track and Trace System in the identified sectors would be a game changer for improving revenue and curbing counterfeit products in the market.

In addition to this, it is also expected that FBR will start installing UIMs (tax stamps) on various sector products from July 2021.