PM to inaugurate track and trace system for sugar industry on Nov 23

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan will inaugurate the track and trace system of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for the sugar industry on November 23.

In this regard, Profit learnt that the premier will inaugurate the system through a Zoom link.

Sources said that most of the sugar mills shall start production in the next two to three days and the the tax department wants to monitor production through the track and trace system from this year as mills do not report exact statistics of their production.

Recently, FBR has also issued an SRO with regard to the implementation of the system on sugar bags. The SRO states that no sugar bag shall be allowed to be removed from a production site, factory premises or manufacturing plant without a Unique Identification Marking (UIMs) with effect from November 11, which are to be obtained from FBR's licensee AJCL/MITAS/Authentix Consortium. 

It is pertinent to mention here that sugar is the second sector, after tobacco, where FBR will implement the system for electronic monitoring of production and sales of goods on all manufacturing sites.

It is worth mentioning here that the sugar mills will start crushing sugarcane from November 15, in different areas of the country and the government is expecting a bumper crop of sugarcane during this season that will help in lowering the prices of sugar in the domestic market.

On Sunday, Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry in a tweet stated that prices of sugar have decreased to Rs43 per kg.

Presently, the ex-mill rate of sugar is around Rs92 per kg in south Punjab and according to a Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) representative, prices will further decrease up to Rs10 in the coming days when the production starts.