PM Orders Digital Monitoring Of Major Industries By Year End

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed tax authorities to complete a digital production monitoring system across major industries by the end of December, placing the reform drive at the centre of the government’s effort to strengthen revenue collection and reduce leakage in the economy.

The instruction was issued during a meeting in Islamabad on Monday where officials reviewed progress on reforms at the Federal Board of Revenue. The prime minister was briefed on the performance of sectors where monitoring systems have already been installed and on plans to expand the mechanism to other production lines before the close of the year.

Officials told the meeting that digital monitoring has been fully installed in the sugar, cement, tobacco, tiles and fertiliser sectors. They said work is also under way in textile, packaged water, packaged juice and packaged milk industries, where equipment procurement has already been completed for installation.

The review also covered additional sectors still awaiting equipment. Officials said procurement for steel, poultry and tyre industries is expected to be completed by October 15, while purchases for tea, household electronics, leather, paper and board, and oil and ghee sectors are scheduled to be completed by October 30.

According to the briefing, the monitoring system is expected to become fully operational across the targeted production sectors by December 31. Authorities said the system is being supported through cameras and related technology under a faceless monitoring approach intended to reduce manual intervention and improve enforcement.

The meeting was informed that some textile units had resisted installation of the monitoring system. However, several major companies were named as having voluntarily complied with the measure, and the prime minister appreciated businesses that had cooperated with the government’s reform process.

A separate assessment on the gap between actual and potential tax collection was also presented. Officials said measures taken over the past three years had helped generate an additional Rs1.3 trillion in tax revenue, representing a 40 percent increase attributed to enforcement steps.

The prime minister directed officials to remove obstacles delaying the installation of automated production monitoring systems. He said businesses collecting taxes from consumers but not depositing them into the national exchequer should not expect concessions, while compliant firms would be viewed positively.

The government sees the monitoring programme as a tool to improve documentation in major industries, support fairer tax collection and reduce pressure on compliant taxpayers. The next stage will depend on timely installation, audits by relevant technology authorities and enforcement against sectors that continue to resist the system.