BR editorial: response from SRB

Sindh Revenue Board (SRB) has read with interest the Editorial captioned “SRB’s unfair discrimination” as it appeared in your esteemed daily “Business Recorder” of July 25, 2025. While the PTBA’s letter, as mentioned in the said Editorial, has been responded to vide letter dated 28th July, 2025, SRB will like to clarify as follows:-

(a) While the standard rate of Sindh Sales Tax (SST) on all the taxable services (including the services provided by restaurants) is 15 percent w.e.f. 01.07.2024, the reduced rate of 8 percent on such restaurant services has been allowed to incentivise the digital payments by the restaurant customers;

(b) As rightly pointed out in the Editorial, Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) and the FBR have also allowed similar incentive of reduced of PST and ICT service tax for the restaurant customers in Punjab and ICT. It is pertinent to add that the KP, in the recent budget, has also allowed similar incentive of KPST for the restaurant customers in KP;

(c) For legal mechanism of allowing the restaurants to charge standard rate of SST, PST and KPST, reference may be made to the provisions of the second Proviso to rule 42(1)(b) of the Sindh Sales Tax on Services Rules, 2011 (Rules, 2011), section 10-A of the PSToS Act, 2012 and section 18 of the KPSToS Act, 2022, respectively; and

(d) While 73 Sindh-based restaurants have been granted such permission by SRB, the requests of 50 restaurants, in this regard, have not been acceded to. This shows that the grant of such permissions is not automatic but such requests, when received, are examined in greater details and are allowed only in such cases where justifiable reasons are given by the restaurants adhering to the POS invoicing system in accordance with the Sindh Sales Tax Special Procedure (Online Integration of Business) Rules, 2022. It is pertinent to add that several such permissions have also been allowed by PRA in the case of restaurants in Punjab.

SRB acknowledges the support and guidance by your esteemed newspaper and assures that no undue benefit or preferential treatment is provided by SRB to any person or a group of persons to the unfair disadvantage of their competitors or to the undue disadvantage of the customers of restaurants.

Naveed Shoukat Rajput

Secretary, SRB

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025