Pakistan orders packaged-tea makers to barcode and count every pack

Pakistan orders packaged-tea makers to barcode and count every pack

12 November 2026: Pakistan's Federal Board of Revenue has ordered every registered maker, blender and packer of retail-packed tea, toll and contract packers included, to scan and count each sealed pack on every packing line through an electronic production monitoring system by 10 December 2026. Sales Tax General Order No. 35 of 2026, issued in Islamabad on 12 November, came into force at once and names four authorised vendors.

Not yet independently verified. This rests on the FBR order alone. It does not state the fee packers pay under rule 150ZQZD or a penalty for missing either date, and we have found no second report. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

Barcodes first, within 15 days

The order starts with the packs themselves, because the system identifies each one by its barcode. A packer whose SKUs carry no barcode, or a barcode shared between SKUs, has 15 days from the order, which takes it to 27 November, to:

• print or fix a machine-readable code (GS1 EAN-13, EAN-8 or UPC, Code 128, QR or Data Matrix) at a fixed, scannable position on every retail pack, using a label that cannot be removed without visible damage;
• give every distinct brand, blend, net weight and pack type its own barcode;
• register SKU master data (brand, blend, weight, pack type, retail price, barcode number and a photograph) with its authorised vendor, and register any new or changed SKU at least seven days before packing it;
• set up a conveyor or scanning point at packing or dispatch where packing is done by hand.

A pack without a registered barcode is treated as not monitored, and under rule 150ZQT(2) of the Sales Tax Rules, 2006 unmonitored tea may not leave the premises.

What the vendors must supply

The scope is wide: black and green tea, flavoured blends, tea bags, instant tea, extracts and 3-in-1 premixes, in sachets, pouches, jars, tins, cartons and catering packs. Industrial scanners must read each pack after it is filled and sealed, counting sensors must count it, and the count is recorded SKU by SKU. The four authorised vendors, under Orders of Authorization No. 7(3)/IR/TDU/2026, are Excellence Delivered (ExD), the National Radio and Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC), Tollink Pakistan and AJCL. Their systems must meet Section V of the bidding document for Bid No. 7(3)/IR/TDU/2026, which the order says includes real-time capture of production events through IP cameras, real-time transmission to the Board's Central Control Unit, alerts for unreadable or unregistered barcodes, SKU mismatches, tampering and bypass, audit logs, and dashboards for reconciliation and enforcement.

Packers must also provide access, IT infrastructure, connectivity and power under rule 150ZQZE and pay the fee and charges set under rule 150ZQZD, which the order does not quantify.

The third sector in three weeks

Tea follows two earlier orders under Chapter XIV-BA: spinning mills by 15 November and tyre makers by 30 November. Tea differs in having four vendors instead of one, and in the barcode step, which falls on packaging and labelling suppliers as much as on the packers. Annex A lists registered makers and packers by tax office, starting with Tapal Tea and Islamabad Tea Company at LTO Karachi; the order says the list does not limit who is covered, and Chief Commissioners will name focal persons and enrol any packer missing from it. Our manufacturing software category lists 10 products; none is an FBR-authorised monitoring vendor.

Sources

• Federal Board of Revenue: Sales Tax General Order No. 35 of 2026, IR Operations, electronic monitoring of production in the packaged tea sector (PDF), 12 November 2026