FBR Orders Packaged Tea Monitoring: Barcode Every Pack, System by 10 December

We downloaded the order from FBR's Sales Tax General Orders page on the night of 12 November and read all five pages. Below are the two deadlines, which tea products are covered, the 14 companies FBR names, the four approved vendors, and what changes for a packer from now on.

Two deadlines: 15 days for barcodes, 10 December for the system

The order sets two dates. Packers whose packs have no barcode, or a barcode shared by more than one product, must fix that within 15 days of the order. Counted from 12 November, that is about 27 November, though the order itself says "fifteen (15) days of the issue of this Order" and does not print a date. All packers must have the full system installed and working "by or before 10th December, 2026".

An SKU (stock keeping unit) is one product in one size and pack, for example a 95 gram pouch of one blend. Each one needs its own barcode.

Every kind of packaged tea is covered, including tea bags and 3-in-1

The order covers tea in retail packing of any size, weight or format: sachets, pouches, packs, cartons, jars, tins, tea-bag boxes and catering or bulk packs. It lists these kinds of tea:

• Black tea and partly fermented tea, flavoured or not, including leaf, CTC, fannings and tea dust.
• Green tea, flavoured or not.
• Black, green or flavoured tea in tea bags.
• Instant tea, and tea extracts, essences and concentrates.
• Tea preparations, including premixes with milk powder or sugar, such as 3-in-1.

It applies to anyone who makes, blends or packs tea in retail packs, including toll or contract packers who pack for another brand.

How the system counts tea packs

The order describes the system plainly. After a pack is filled and sealed, an industrial scanner on the packing line reads its barcode to identify the SKU. A sensor counts each pack. The count is recorded SKU by SKU and sent to FBR in real time. IP cameras also record production events. The system must flag stops, unreadable or unregistered barcodes, SKU mismatches, tampering and bypass.

Where tea is packed by hand, the packer must set up a conveyor or a scanning point at the packing or dispatch stage that every pack passes through. Paragraph 4 of the order lists what packers must do:

1. Print or fix a machine-readable barcode on the outer face of every retail pack, at a fixed spot the scanner can read.
2. Give each SKU its own unique barcode, so no barcode is used for two products.
3. Register each SKU's brand, blend, weight, pack type, retail price and barcode, with a photo of the pack, with an approved vendor.
4. Set up a conveyor or scanning point where packing is manual.
5. Never remove, cover or change a barcode once the system is installed.

The order also says a packer may not remove packaged tea from its premises unless the production has been monitored. A pack with no registered barcode is treated as not monitored. The packer must pay the vendor's fee and charges under the sales tax rules; the order does not state the amount.

FBR names 14 tea companies in its list, but it is not complete

Annex A of the order is a "non-exhaustive" list of registered makers and packers of packaged tea. FBR says the order applies to every tea packer, whether listed or not, and tells its field offices to find any that are missing. The 14 names on the list are:

The annex also lists tax offices in Karachi, Islamabad, Peshawar, Sargodha and Abbottabad. In the PDF text we downloaded, the office column does not line up row by row with the names, so we have not matched each company to an office. Check the PDF itself if you need that.

Four vendors are approved to install the system

The order names four vendors authorised by FBR for the tea sector: Excellence Delivered (ExD) (Pvt) Ltd, National Radio and Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC), Tollink Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd and AJCL (Pvt) Ltd. Each entry gives a contact person, a phone number and an email. A packer must use one of these four. The order also tells each Chief Commissioner Inland Revenue to name a focal person to help packers meet the dates.

What this means for tea buyers

The order does not change the sales tax rate on tea or any retail price. It is about counting what is packed, so that sales tax is paid on every pack that leaves a factory. Tea is listed at serial 10 of the Third Schedule of the Sales Tax Act, which is the list of goods taxed on their printed retail price. FBR has used the same kind of order for other sectors this year, such as tyre production monitoring under STGO 32 and video surveillance in factories under STGO 27. Our list of all FBR sales tax general orders of 2026 shows the others.

How we checked this

We opened FBR's Sales Tax General Orders list for 2026 on 12 November at about 22:00 PKT. STGO 35 was at the top, dated 12 November, next to STGO 34. We downloaded the five-page PDF and read its text. The signing officer is Khalid Mehmood, Second Secretary (ST-L&P). We did not contact FBR or any vendor.

Common questions

What is STGO 35 of 2026?

An FBR order dated 12 November 2026 that puts electronic production monitoring on every maker and packer of packaged tea in Pakistan.

What is the deadline for tea packers?

Barcodes on every SKU within 15 days of the order, and the full monitoring system working by 10 December 2026.

Does it cover small and contract packers?

Yes. It covers anyone who makes, blends or packs tea in retail packs, including toll or contract packers, whether or not they are on the FBR list.

Will tea prices go up because of this order?

The order does not change any tax rate or price. It only sets up counting of packs.

Which vendors can install the system?

ExD, NRTC, Tollink Pakistan and AJCL, the four named in the order.

Can a packer move tea before the system is installed?

The order says no packaged tea may leave the premises unless production has undergone monitoring, which applies once the system is in force for that packer.

How we verified this

What we checked, where we read it, and what we could not confirm.

Federal Board of Revenue, Sales Tax General Order No. 35 of 2026, IR Operations, "Electronic Monitoring of Production in the Packaged Tea Sector", dated 12 November 2026, downloaded from fbr.gov.pk on 12 November 2026 at about 22:00 PKT.