ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has decided to relax the criteria of financial position of companies intended to provide GSM or GPRS or satellite communication services for monitoring and tracking, on a real-time basis, of containers and vehicles carrying cargoes throughout the journey.

The FBR has issued draft amendments in the Tracking and Monitoring of Cargo Rules, 2012, here on Thursday.

According to the rules, the FBR spelled out a detailed procedure for the grant of a licence to the company to be engaged in tracking and monitoring of various types of cargo throughout the journey from the port of entry to the port of exit or from one warehouse to another, on real-time basis.

The FBR has laid down a detailed criterion for the companies who wanted to carry out tracking and monitoring of cargo including transit cargo, transshipment cargo and transportation of petroleum products to Afghanistan.

Under the criteria for grant of licence to the applicant, the company shall be in a financial position to undertake the project-minimum turnover of Rs350 million, and financial worth of Rs200 million.

After relaxation of the condition, it shall be in a financial position to undertake the project-minimum turnover of Rs175 million and financial worth of Rs100 million.

The licensee shall be required to provide the services including monitoring and tracking of vehicles and containers carrying the cargo mentioned in these rules from Customs port of entry to Customs port of exit on a real-time basis; maintaining en-route integrity of cargo by preventing pilferage or theft or losses; access to relevant information through web-portal to all stakeholders as allowed under these rules or by the customs; flexible solution to cater for any future requirements of tracking under multi-modal and inter-modal transportation environment, e.g. with other stakeholders like Pakistan Railways etc; monitoring timely deliveries and reporting on transport efficiencies; managing the system under proper maintenance to ensure smooth operation of the system, compatible with customs procedures and operations so as to ensure running of the system by customs also; vehicle immobilisation and securing as and when required, and mandatory in case of geo-fencing violation, pilferage attempts, unauthorised or unusual stoppage and reporting application capable of generating different reports.

The rules said that the licensee shall also provide extension of tracking or monitoring to trans-border, if required; customised land marking; customised analytical reports; scalable solution to handle additional units and single interface for monitoring of containers and authorised carriers.

As per rules, no company shall carry out tracking and monitoring of cargo, unless it has obtained a licence under these rules.

No licensee under these rules shall establish, maintain or operate any telecommunication system or provide any telecommunication service, which is not authorised under the licence issued to it by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).

The rules have also elaborated the functioning of Licensing Committee.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020