Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Monday that action should be taken against tax defaulters and evaders on an emergency basis.

While presiding over a meeting in Islamabad, the prime minister called for the constitution of a committee to identify the hurdles and responsibilities in the track and trace system.

The committee would identify the hurdles and people involved in tax theft within seven days, according to a press release from the PM Office Media Wing.

The committee would be tasked to submit future proposals for the enforcement of automatic tax systems in factories and industries.

At the meeting, the prime minister questioned why the system was still inactive. He was of the view that the system should have been made functional in the tobacco, sugar, cement and fertilizer industries over the last two years, adding that the system should be placed in other important sectors of the economy.

All the legal impediments in the enforcement of the track and trace system should be removed, PM Shehbaz said and added that the system should be enforced at all the production lines of cement factories.

He summoned a comprehensive plan over digital strategy and automated track and trace system. The premier further directed that all those factories that resisted the implementation of the track and trace system should be immediately sealed.

Besides revenues, the PM said the system could also be utilised for counterfeit and substandard products. He also asked for an end to fake and unregistered cigarettes and their destruction.

The country was facing economic issues and the mafia with their connivance had been inflicting damages to the national kitty, he said and called for the help of the international institutions in the track and trace system.

Officials said that in 14 tobacco factories, the system was fully functional whereas 12 others had been sealed for noncompliance. The system was fully functional in the fertilizers industry while it was facing problems in sugar and cement factories due to some technical issues which were being addressed.

The meeting was attended by federal ministers including Muhammad Aurangzeb, Ahad Khan Cheema, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Jehanzaib Khan, FBR Chairman Malik Amjad Zubair Tiwana and other senior officials.