Muhammad Asif Kayani
Islamabad: Imran Khan’s Shaukat Khanum Hospital has been targeted by the government. The Senate Standing Committee on Finance has backed a sales tax on charitable and welfare hospitals.
A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance was held under the chairmanship of Senator Salim Mandviwala, in which the committee asked that the sales tax exemption on charitable and welfare hospitals be abolished.
FBR officials told the committee that government hospitals are paying sales tax. The big and expensive hospitals of the country are established on trusts. Private hospitals do not pay sales tax. Tax exemption for trust-based hospitals is being abolished. Big private hospitals are included in it.
Senator Farooq H. Naik said that the hospitals built in the name of the trust have also appointed doctors who charge huge fees. Labs in the name of trust charge expensive fees.
Salim Mandviwala said that a trustee hospital did not give the 20 lakhs to the bereaved until the bill was paid. If the government is giving tax exemptions, they should also audit the hospitals.
