Are doctors' consultations and tuition or coaching in Islamabad subject to ICT sales tax on services?

Section 3 of the Islamabad Capital Territory (Tax on Services) Ordinance, 2001 taxes only the services listed in its Schedule. So the question for a doctor or tutor in Islamabad is whether any entry in Table-1 or Table-2 describes what they do. For ordinary medical consultation, none does. For several activities around medicine and teaching, entries do.

What does the law say?

Section 3(1): the charge. Tax is charged at the rates in column (4) of Table-1 on “the value of the taxable services rendered or provided in the Islamabad Capital Territory”. Services in Table-2 are charged at the rates and on the conditions printed in Table-2.

Section 2: meanings. Words used but not defined in the Ordinance take their meaning from the Sales Tax Act, 1990.

The entries that touch medicine and teaching. From the Schedule as amended to 30 June 2025:

Entry	Description (from the Schedule)	Rate
Table-1, serial 8	Personal care by beauty parlours, clinics and slimming clinics, body massage centres, pedicure centres, including cosmetic and plastic surgery by such parlours/clinics, excluding (i) annual turnover not exceeding Rs.3.6 million, or (ii) where air-conditioning is not installed or available	Fifteen percent
Table-2, serial 2	The same personal care services, with the same two exclusions	Five per cent, no input tax adjustment or refund
Table-1, serial 26	Services provided by laboratories other than services relating to pathological or diagnostic tests for patients	Fifteen percent
Table-1, serial 11	IT services and IT-enabled services; IT-enabled services include medical transcription, remote monitoring and telemedicine centres	Fifteen percent
Table-1, serial 58	Training or coaching services other than education services	Fifteen percent
Table-1, serial 38	Valuation services; competency and eligibility testing services, excluding education testing services rendered under a bilateral or multilateral agreement signed by the Government of Pakistan	Fifteen percent

No entry names medical consultation, general practice, hospitals or doctors.

How does it work in practice?

For a doctor or clinic. Consultation fees are not a listed service. A clinic offering cosmetic or plastic surgery alongside personal care services needs to check serial 8 of Table-1 and serial 2 of Table-2. A laboratory needs to separate tests for patients, which are outside serial 26, from other laboratory work, which is inside it. A telemedicine centre falls within the IT-enabled services wording of serial 11.

For a tutor or academy. Serial 58 taxes “training or coaching services other than education services”. Neither the ICT Ordinance nor its Schedule defines education services. Section 2 points to the Sales Tax Act, 1990 for undefined words, and this page does not state that the Act defines the term. Whether school-subject tuition is education services, or coaching, is not answered by the text held here.

On the two beauty and clinic entries. Table-1 serial 8 prints fifteen percent and Table-2 serial 2 prints five per cent for the same description. The proviso to section 3(1) says Table-2 services are charged at Table-2 rates. The Ordinance text does not further explain how the two entries relate.

Worked example (illustrative figures)

The figures are invented. The rates are from the Schedule.

A skin and cosmetic clinic in F-7, Islamabad is air-conditioned and has annual turnover of Rs. 12,000,000, so neither exclusion in serial 8 applies. In one month it bills Rs. 500,000 for cosmetic procedures and Rs. 300,000 for ordinary dermatology consultations.

1. Consultations: no entry lists them, so no ICT tax is shown for this Rs. 300,000.
2. Cosmetic procedures at the Table-1 rate: 15% of Rs. 500,000 = Rs. 75,000.
3. Cosmetic procedures at the Table-2 rate: 5% of Rs. 500,000 = Rs. 25,000, with no input tax adjustment or refund.

Step 2 and step 3 show the two printed rates side by side. Which applies depends on how the two tables are read together, which the text held here does not spell out.

What if …?

What if my clinic’s turnover is Rs. 3,000,000? Both serial 8 and Table-2 serial 2 exclude cases where annual turnover does not exceed Rs.3.6 million.

What if I teach online from Islamabad? Section 3 looks at where the service is rendered or provided. The Ordinance text held here has no specific rule for online teaching.

What if my academy prepares students for entry tests? Serial 38 excludes only education testing services under agreements signed by the Government of Pakistan. Preparation classes are a different activity and would be looked at under serial 58. The borderline is not resolved in the text.

Common mistakes

• Assuming every clinic service is exempt. Consultation is not listed, but cosmetic surgery by parlours or clinics, some laboratory work and telemedicine are.
• Treating all laboratory work as exempt. Only pathological or diagnostic tests for patients are carved out.
• Reading serial 58 as taxing all teaching. It excludes education services, a term the Ordinance does not define.
• Applying ICT tax outside Islamabad. Provincial sales tax on services laws are outside this corpus.

What to check in the official text

Read sections 2 and 3 and serial numbers 8, 11, 26, 38 and 58 of Table-1 and serial 2 of Table-2 in the official PDF of the ICT Ordinance amended to 30 June 2025. Section 3(4) lets the Board notify a Negative List of exempt services in Table-3; no Table-3 is printed in the edition held here, so check whether one has been notified.