Karachi: The dentists in Karachi have again started receiving letters from the Sindh revenue Board, Government of Sindh to register their practices with SRB as per Sindh Sales tax Services Act 2011.
The Tariff heading 98420000 with service category Cosmetic & Plastic Surgery is to be charged at 13%. The Services of Cosmetic & Plastic Surgery are defined in section 2 clause (29A) of the Sindh Sales tax on services Act, 2011
“ includes the services provided as rendered by any person, in relation to aesthetic or cosmetic surgery or plastic surgery like abdominoplasty, blepharoplasty, mammoplastry, buttock augmentation and lift, rhinoplasty, otoplasty, rhytidectomy, brow lift, cheek augmentation, facial implants lip augmentation, forehead lift, cosmetic, dental surgery, orthodontics, aesthetic dentistry, laser skin surfacing hair grafting, hair transplant and such similar surgery”
It is interesting that all the notices were received today with due date for compliance as 27th August, 2018.
Since the imposition of this sales tax seems to be on cosmetic and plastic surgery and when one reads through the details of the section 2, clause 29 A, it seems that there has been an inadvertent comma after cosmetic which separates the cosmetic and dental surgery resulting in these big read as two separate components rather than one component as “Cosmetic dental Surgery”.
It seems that if the imposition is on general dental procedures then this tax will only make the patients pay more as the whole focus of this SRB tax is cosmetic or beauty enhancing surgeries.
