The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has stepped up scrutiny of Pakistan’s sugar industry, assigning tax officials to dozens of sugar mills to keep a direct watch on production, sales and inventory levels.
The deployment has been made under Section 40B of the Sales Tax Act, 1990, which gives the tax authority powers to monitor business activities linked to production, sales and stocks.
Through its latest order, the FBR has assigned Inland Revenue personnel to individual sugar mill premises across Punjab, Sindh and other regions. The officials will monitor manufacturing activity, sales and available stock at the units where they have been posted.
The new order replaces the FBR’s previous instructions issued on July 21, 2026, as well as later orders that modified the earlier deployment.
A large number of sugar mills and major industry groups are covered by the arrangement. These include JDW Sugar Mills, JK Sugar Mills, Hunza Sugar Mills, Shakarganj, Tandlianwala Sugar Mills, Thal Industries, Noon Sugar Mills, Ramzan Sugar Mills, RYK Mills, Shahtaj Sugar Mills, Chaudhary Sugar Mills and several other units.
The FBR has not relied solely on senior tax officers for the exercise. Its teams include Inland Revenue officers, inspectors, assistant officers, supervisors, MIS personnel, clerical employees and other support staff.
Personnel have been assigned from various tax formations, including the Large Taxpayers Office in Lahore and Regional Tax Offices in Lahore, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Multan, Sahiwal, Sargodha, Peshawar, Sukkur and Gujranwala, among others.
With officials physically present at the mills, the FBR will have a more direct means of tracking what is being produced, sold and held in inventory. The information can subsequently be compared with records submitted to the tax department to identify potential inconsistencies.
The monitoring exercise started on August 21, 2026, with all designated officials required to report to their respective locations by August 22.
The arrangement will remain effective until September 21, 2026.
The FBR has also instructed its formations to ensure a continuous handover between outgoing and incoming personnel. This means the mills covered by the order should not be left without an assigned FBR representative during the monitoring period.
The latest action highlights the tax authority’s growing reliance on physical and real-time monitoring of the sugar sector. By maintaining an official presence at manufacturing sites, the FBR aims to strengthen oversight of production, sales and stocks and improve compliance with sales tax requirements.
