Prices of products on online marketplaces like Temu, SHEIN and AliExpress that surged sharply in Pakistan following the budget are likely to come down again.
The cut is expected as the federal government has removed the 5 percent tax it had introduced in the budget on foreign tech companies and online platforms for supplying digitally ordered goods and services.
“In exercise of the powers conferred by section 15 of the Digital Presence Proceeds Tax Act, 2025, the federal government is pleased to direct that the Digital Presence Proceeds Tax shall not apply to digitally ordered goods and services supplied from outside Pakistan, by any person, which are chargeable to tax under the said Act,” according to a notification issued by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
The government’s decision, prompted in a bid to strike a trade deal with the U.S., will also be appliable on other foreign companies. This will benefit platforms like Temu, SHEIN and AliExpress to name a few.
The tax would be waived starting July 1, 2025, the date when the new law and the 2025–26 fiscal year budget came into effect.
It is pertinent to mention here that in addition to the 5 percent tax, an 18 percent sales tax was also imposed on these online platforms, something ProPakistani explained in an earlier post.
The removal of the 5 percent tax is expected to bring prices down on these platforms. However, the prices still won’t come down to the pre-budget level due to the 18 percent sales tax.
would this also include Apple icloud services and youtube premium ?
Yuck
for that to happen apple has to have office presence with atleast one staff member here. Like google got exempted. until that happens, NO.
First good news in a while . Though issue is free shipping concern
“The tax would be waived starting July 1, 2025, the date when the new law and the 2025–26 fiscal year budget came into effect.”
Kind of difficult when it’s been 31 days already to this date. Are you using internet explorer
This is not a big issue. FBR has reduced the online duty-free import limit to PKR 1,000, which was previously PKR 5,000. It should be increased further.
DHL and FedEx are still cheating poor people on shipping costs
Govt should take this decision back. atleast for Chinese Ecom platforms. they’ll crush local Ecommerce stores. which are mostly small operations. Those won’t be able to compete with the likes of Temu, Shein and Ali Express. And i say that as an avid shopper of Temu and Ali express which got affected by price increases on these platforms but it is what it is. I had to accept it considering the larger picture which is that local small Ecom operators needed this protection
July 1st or August 1st?!
Well temu was offering good products at good reasonable but our government could not see that anything that benefits the people should be available to locals sadly !!!
What a pathetically written article, article is posted on 31st July & taxes will be waived off at 1st.
It doesn’t talk about real issue. Chinese delivery platforms still have not switched back to Chinese shipping companies which offer cheaper shipping costs. DHL FedEx are too expensive.