I RECENTLY did some shopping at two different shops. Both brand shops applied 17 per cent general sales tax. I also shopped same items a few months ago but at that time there was no GST serviceable.

Was it not applicable before or was it gorged by these outlets? The fact is that sales tax has been collected for many years but was not being deposited in the national exchequer by the retailers.

I paid almost Rs700 as GST for an item worth Rs3,500, which is really a huge amount. Will the authorities concerned shed some light on this issue?

Ammar ul Hassan
Lahore

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2019