High Court Order on Sales Tax of Rs. 3000/- or 6000/- on electricity bills

Full Job Description

by Waseeqa Naveesi - July 30, 2022

1

High Court Order on Sales Tax of Rs. 3000/- or 6000/- on electricity bills

In the name of ALLAH, the most beneficent, the mostmerciful

High Court Order on Sales Taxof Rs. 3000/- or 6000/- on electricity bills

Minimum sale tax of Rs. 3000/- per month hasbeen imposed on retailers/ small shopkeepers through monthly electricity bills.The Sales Tax so imposed is not fixed and may very depend on different thingslike what is the total consumption of electricity and what does it cost. Furthermore,there is another factor involved for calculating the ratio of sales tax onelectricity bill, is that whether the retailers / small shopkeepers are appearingin Active Tax Payer List (ATL) or not. If they are appearing in Active TaxPayer List, they will be charged less sales tax however if they are notappearing in ATL, they will be charged double of the sales tax. Following isthe chart explaining the ratio of sales tax imposed on retailers:

Monthly Bill

Tax

(Filer) -Appearing in ATL

Tax

(Non Filer) - notappearing in ATL

Rs. 0/- to Rs. 30,000/-

Rs. 3000/-

Rs. 6,000/-

Rs. 30,000/- to Rs.50,000/-

Rs. 5000/-

Rs. 10,000/-

More than Rs. 50,000/-

Rs. 10,000/-

Rs. 20,000/-

The imposition of sales tax on lawyers communitythrough electricity bills have been challenged by High Court Bar Association,Rawalpindi by way of filing a Writ Petition No. 2148/2022, titled as “HighCourt Bar Association Rawalpindi Versus Federation of Pakistan etc” beforeLahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench Rawalpindi, which was allowed by hislordship Mr. Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh J vide order dated 28-07-2022 and theHonourable Court declared that lawyers are not subject to levy of sales taxleviable on retailers.

The relevant portion of order is herebyreproduced:

In the result, this petition is allowedin the following terms.

1. Itis declared that lawyers are not subject to levy of the impugned sales taxleviable on the retailers in terms of 3(9) of the Act

2. Thepetition shall provide a list(containing the particulars mentioned in paragraph 8 above) to the concernedCommissioner of Inland Revenue for exclusion of the commercial connectionsinstalled at the lawyers’ offices from the chargeability of the impugned tax.The commissioner shall be competent to have a ground check to verify anyparticular case after due process.

3. Ifany sales tax has been wrongly collected, it shall be refunded/ adjusted inaccordance with law.

It is not allowing to access high court order regarding tax on electricity bill