The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has authorised four vendors to install electronic production-monitoring cameras at manufacturing sites across five industries, tightening its digital watch over factory output in a bid to curb tax evasion.
The move, announced on Wednesday, comes under a new notification that makes it mandatory for manufacturers of specified taxable goods to buy and install production monitoring systems only from vendors approved by the Board. No other supplier’s equipment will count.
What the notification requires: FBR production monitoring cameras
Under the notification, any registered manufacturer, or class of manufacturers, named under Rule 150ZQR of the sales tax rules must procure its production monitoring system, monitoring equipment or any other prescribed mechanism solely from an authorised vendor.
The rule covers the electronic monitoring, tracking and identification of production, sales, clearance, stock or any other related activity. The Board can also set, by Gazette notification or special order, the date from which the system must be installed and operational for any person, manufacturer, goods or sector, with different dates allowed for different cases.
Authorised vendors carry their own compliance burden. The equipment they install must conform to the specifications, standards and requirements approved by the Board, and any vendor installing gear without the Board’s prior written approval is barred.
Cameras, counters and the “digital eye”
The monitoring toolkit goes well beyond a camera on a wall. The approved systems include industrial barcode scanners, counting sensors, industrial computers, IP cameras, network video recorders, programmable logic controllers, LED displays and uninterrupted power supplies.
On the software side, manufacturers must run production monitoring software capable of real-time object detection and counting, quantitative production analysis, data archiving, detection of unexpected production stoppages and analytics that can support enforcement action. The entire system must feed production data in real time to FBR’s central control unit, giving the tax authority continuous visibility without relying on businesses to report their own output.
Earlier deployments show how the technology works in practice. In the bottled water sector, ordered to comply by mid-June 2026, automated counting tracks bottles through production and packaging lines, flags suspicious activity and generates instant alerts when irregularities appear.
Five more industries in the net
The electronic monitoring system is already fully functional in the sugar, cement, tobacco, tiles and fertiliser sectors, and was extended to bottled water earlier this year. The government has said five further industries carry a tax potential of more than Rs700 billion, with work on nine more sectors under way to recover a further Rs560 billion.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has told the FBR to develop a scientific method for estimating sector-wise tax potential and to work with the power sector to identify informal businesses and evaders, with legal action to follow against violators.
Why it matters
Factory-level monitoring closes one of the oldest gaps in sales tax collection: under-reported production. If a plant’s declared output does not match what the cameras and sensors count, the discrepancy is logged automatically and can feed directly into enforcement proceedings.
For compliant manufacturers, the cost is real but so is the level playing field. Businesses that already pay their taxes have long complained that rivals undercut them by hiding production. FBR’s message with the vendor list is that the surveillance will now be built into the factory floor itself, and only Board-approved equipment will do.
FAQs
What has FBR authorised?
FBR has authorised four vendors to install electronic production-monitoring equipment, including cameras, sensors and analytics software, at manufacturing sites in five industries.
Do manufacturers have to buy from these vendors?
Yes. Under the new notification, manufacturers of specified taxable goods must procure and install the monitoring system only from an FBR-approved vendor.
What equipment does the system include?
IP cameras, barcode scanners, counting sensors, network video recorders, industrial computers and real-time analytics software that transmits data to FBR’s central control unit.
Which sectors already have the system?
The monitoring system is already fully functional in sugar, cement, tobacco, tiles and fertiliser, with bottled water brought in earlier this year.
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Originally reported by propakistani.pk.
