Budget 2025 Update: FBR Broadens Definition of Online Marketplace: In the recent federal budget 2025-26, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has redefined “Online Market Place” for the purpose of regularizing and taxing the fast growing digital economy of Pakistan.
One of the important update in the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, is the redefinition of the term “online marketplace.” The change in definition will bring a massive change to a wide range of digital platforms and sellers, remodeling how e-commerce competitors deals with the tax system in Pakistan.
New Definition of “Online Marketplace”
Section 2(38B): “online marketplace” means an information technology platform run by e-commerce entity over an electronic network that acts as a facilitator in transactions that occur between a buyer and a seller and includes “online interfaces” that facilitate, for a fee, the direct interaction between multiple buyers and multiple sellers via digital orders for supply of goods and services, with or without the platform taking economic ownership of the goods or providing or rendering the services that are being sold.“
