FBR to install surveillance cameras at factory premises

FBR to install surveillance cameras at factory premises

ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has amended sales tax rules for installing surveillance cameras at factory premises to monitor production of goods in various sectors to prevent tax evasion.

The FBR issued SRO 889(I)/2020 on Monday to amend Sales Tax Rules, 2006 and introduced rules namely ‘Video Analytics Rules for Electronic Monitoring of Production of Specified Goods.’

The FBR said that the provisions of the rules shall apply to video surveillance for electronic monitoring of production on real-time basis.

The FBR shall monitor, under these rules, the goods specified in Third Schedule appended to the Sales Tax Act, 1990.

The FBR said that production of specified goods, manufactured in Pakistan, shall be monitored through intelligent video surveillance, and video analytics by installation of equipment including video cameras, sensors, etc. at production lines, as are approved by the FBR, for:

— real time collection of data that shows production through object detection and object counting;

— transmission of data to central control room at FBR on real time basis, storage and archiving of data;

— detection of unexpected stops;

— quantitative analyses of productions; and

— data analytics for required legal actions.

The FBR further said that no person engaged in manufacturing of specified goods shall remove the production from its business premises unless it has undergone the process of intelligent video surveillance.

The IT team of the FBR shall ensure that each factory premises is connected to the system with adequate IT infrastructure required for real time electronic monitoring of production and generation of periodic reports.