Recent data from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) presented at the National Assembly Standing Committee shows Pakistanis spent over Rs. 317 billion on various online platforms during the 2024–25 fiscal year. The major sources, shared exclusively with ProPakistani, include tech giants like Meta, Apple, and Netflix.
The government has passed the “Digital Presence” Proceeds Levy Act, 2025. This law introduces a 5 percent tax on payments made to foreign companies such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Temu, as well as local vendors like Daraz and Pak Wheels that sell goods and services online in Pakistan. The tax applies to the total amount paid for both products and services.
Meta Leads the Way
The spending covers many types of apps. Social media platforms lead with Facebook/Meta accounting for Rs. 12.3 billion spent. Surprisingly, Apple/iTunes experienced the largest number of transactions—more than 5.1 million—totaling nearly Rs. 6 billion.
Take a look at the table below.
| S. No. | Vendor Name | Number of Transactions | Value (PKR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Facebook/Meta | 1,860,209 | 12,312,714,562 |
| 2 | Apple/iTunes | 5,141,211 | 5,986,590,439 |
| 3 | 2,311,839 | 5,949,728,283 | |
| 4 | AliExpress | 944,466 | 4,999,455,332 |
| 5 | Netflix | 3,370,724 | 2,795,324,547 |
| 6 | Alibaba.com | 26,611 | 2,000,076,591 |
| 7 | Temu | 376,745 | 1,827,603,741 |
| 8 | Shopify | 38,818 | 1,004,509,325 |
| 9 | Others | 28,623,641 | 281,404,425,413 |
| Total | 42,694,264 | 317,781,138,233 |
Google Ahead of AliExpress and Netflix
Google comes next with 2.3 million transactions and an overall value of Rs. 5.94 billion. AliExpress also saw high spending, with almost Rs. 5 billion across 944,466 sales. New entrants, such as Temu, managed to attract Rs. 1.8 billion, despite having fewer transactions.
Streaming services such as Netflix recorded 3.37 million transactions, totaling Rs. 2.79 billion. This shows many people still pay for online entertainment, despite rising subscription prices.
The “Other” online platforms, which are not named, totaled 28.6 million transactions worth Rs. 281.4 billion. This suggests that many small vendors or unreported sales, possibly involving bundled transactions, contribute to this large volume.
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