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

 

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

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

 

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

 

 

Minimum sale tax of Rs. 3000/- per month has been imposed on retailers/ small shopkeepers through monthly electricity bills. The Sales Tax so imposed is not fixed and may very depend on different things like 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 on electricity bill, is that whether the retailers / small shopkeepers are appearing in Active Tax Payer List (ATL) or not. If they are appearing in Active Tax Payer List, they will be charged less sales tax however if they are not appearing in ATL, they will be charged double of the sales tax. Following is the chart explaining the ratio of sales tax imposed on retailers:

 

 

Monthly Bill	Tax (Filer) - Appearing in ATL	Tax (Non Filer)- not appearing 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 community through electricity bills have been challenged by High Court Bar Association, Rawalpindi by way of filing a Writ Petition No. 2148/2022, titled as “High Court Bar Association Rawalpindi Versus Federation of Pakistan etc” before Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench Rawalpindi, which was allowed by his lordship Mr. Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh J vide order dated 28-07-2022 and the Honourable Court declared that lawyers are not subject to levy of sales tax leviable on retailers.

The relevant portion of order is hereby reproduced:

 

In the result, this petition is allowed in the following terms.

 

1.               It is declared that lawyers are not subject to levy of the impugned sales tax leviable on the retailers in terms of 3(9) of the Act

 

2.               The petition shall provide  a list (containing the particulars mentioned in paragraph 8 above) to the concerned Commissioner of Inland Revenue for exclusion of the commercial connections installed at the lawyers’ offices from the chargeability of the impugned tax. The commissioner shall be competent to have a ground check to verify any particular case after due process.

 

3.               If any sales tax has been wrongly collected, it shall be refunded/ adjusted in accordance with law.

  

  Click here to download order of High Court regarding sales tax through electricity bill