ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will charge 15 percent sales tax on Electric Power Transmission Services provided within the territorial jurisdiction of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) from July 1, 2023.

According to the Finance Act 2023, the government has made amendments in the Islamabad Capital Territory (Tax on Services) Ordinance, 2001. The FBR will charge 15 percent sales tax on services provided or rendered by hotels, motels, guest houses, farmhouses, marriage halls, lawns, clubs and caterers within the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) from July 1, 2023.

Five percent sales tax would be applicable where payment against services is received through debit or credit cards, mobile wallets or QR scanning subject to the condition that no input tax adjustment or refund shall be admissible. This is applicable on services provided by restaurants including cafes, food (including ice cream) parlours, coffee houses, coffee shops, Deras, food huts, eateries, resorts and similar cooked, prepared or ready-to-eat food service outlets, etc.

Fifteen percent sales tax would be applicable where payment received in cash on services provided by restaurants including cafes, food (including ice cream) parlours, coffee houses, coffee shops, Deras, food huts, eateries, resorts and similar cooked, prepared or ready-to-eat food service outlets, etc.

Fifteen percent sales tax would be applicable on the IT services and IT-enabled services. Explanation:- The “IT services” include but not limited to software development, software maintenance, system integration, web design, web development, web hosting and network design; and the “IT enabled services” include but not limited to inbound or outbound call centres, medical transcription, remote monitoring, graphics design, accounting services, human resources (HR) services, telemedicine centres, data entry operations, cloud computing services, data storage services, locally television programs and insurance claims processing.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023