The Marriage Halls Association, Lahore, has urged the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) to amend the Circular No 4(80) STB/98, under which service-providers, including guesthouses/lawns, clubs, caterers, marriage halls, etc have been declared manufacturer.
The Association through its consultant, the Shahid Baig and Company (Pvt) Ltd has written a letter to the chairman CBR, saying the circular dated 21-11-2003 is not in conformity with law.
Under Clause (17) (a) of Section 2 of the Sales Tax Act 1990, a manufacture is one who manufactures, assembles or produces goods while the marriage halls, guest houses, clubs and lawns provide services at retail level do not compulsorily prepare and provide food items.
Even if they provide food items, but they do not produce the same at their own, they cannot definitely be declared as 'manufacture', the letter added.
It further pleaded that it is an open secret that due to some restrictions, marriage halls/lawns are not providing food items to their customers on the special occasions like Barat, Mehndi, engagement, etc.
So it is quite evident without any shadow of doubt that neither all marriage halls prepare and supply food items at their own nor they can altogether be declared as manufactures.
Therefore, CBR circular declaring all the above categories, as manufacturer is not in consistent with the definition of manufacture provided in the statue and thus needs to be amended.
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