The government has withdrawn sales tax from the services provided by laundries, dry cleaners and marriage halls. The decision has been announced as a part of government policy to allow small and medium enterprises to grow without imposition of sales tax. Services provided/rendered by laundries & dry cleaners and marriage halls/lawns are chargeable to sales tax @ 15 percent under the Sales Tax Ordinance, 2000.

Despite best efforts, compliance in these small and medium size businesses could not be ensured primarily due to thefact that they do not have significant tax-paid inputs to offset the cost of services. It is, therefore, proposed to withdraw sales tax on the aforesaid regimes.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2005