ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has announced a revised method for determining cement value for the purpose of sales tax calculation.

On Tuesday, the FBR issued SRO746 of 2025, outlining the updated mechanism, which aligns the valuation process with data from the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) published by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

As per the notification, the minimum retail price of cement will now be calculated based on the national average retail prices reported by the PBS in its weekly SPI report. These rates will be reviewed twice a month — using the SPI reports released before the 1st and 16th — and applied to the two respective fortnightly periods beginning on those dates.

The document also states that the new pricing method will come into effect starting May 1 and will be used for calculating sales tax at the rate specified under clause (a) of sub-section (2) of Section 3 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990.