Sindh · Excise & Taxation · Abkari Act 1878
Sindh Liquor Excise Duty Calculator
Every item on the Sindh Excise department’s excise duty and licence schedule for liquor, spirit, methanol and intoxicants, in the five shapes they come in: duty by volume, annual licence fees that cost more in year one, one-off fees, per-person charges and a hotel fee worked from room rent. Vehicle registration and transfer fees are on the Sindh vehicle tax calculator.
| Charge | How it is worked out | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Excise duty on beer | 1,000 litres at Rs 102.00 | Rs 102,000.00 |
| Retail licence | First-year licence fee | Rs 500,000.00 |
| Naukarnama fee — staff dealing in liquor or maintaining accounts | 3 people at Rs 100 a year | Rs 300.00 |
Scope
Who is the schedule for?
Mostly charged to the businesses the department licenses; the permit fees are paid by the permit holder. Sale and possession of intoxicating liquor in Pakistan is restricted by law to permit holders, and a licence is what the department issues under that framework.
What cannot be calculated
What can’t be calculated?
- Establishment charge. Charged annually on a private bonded warehouse or distillery 'as per salary and allowance as advance' — it depends on the staff the department posts, so no amount can be derived from the schedule.
Reading the result
How is Sindh excise duty worked out?
Each item has its own shape. Duty and permit fees are a rate times a quantity, in five different units; licences are an annual fee, 2 of them higher in the first year; some fees are one-off; some multiply by headcount; and the hotel licence is a day’s average room rent times 100, every year. In the example above, the first-year retail licence is Rs 500,000 of the Rs 602,300, and the duty on the beer Rs 102,000.
Licence and duty are separate obligations
Holding a licence permits the activity. Duty is charged on what is actually produced, sold or served. Paying one does not discharge the other, and a business that budgets only the licence fee has provided for the permission and not the throughput.
The schedule is provincial and it changes
This is Sindh’s own schedule under its own law. Other provinces license and charge differently for comparable activity, so a figure from here does not transfer across a provincial boundary. The rates are set under section 19 of the Abkari Act and rule 23 of the 1979 Rules, which the Government amends by notification; the Sindh Finance Acts 2024 to 2026 do not change them. That is why they are kept with their source and read date.
Where this stops
This reproduces the published schedule and does the arithmetic. It does not address whether a licence will be granted, which is a regulatory decision with its own conditions, nor federal sales tax on the goods (Sales Tax Act 1990) or Sindh sales tax on the services of hotels and clubs.
FAQs
Sindh Excise Duty FAQs
Who does this schedule apply to?
Mostly the businesses the Sindh Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control Department licenses: bonded warehouses, distilleries, wholesalers and retailers of excisable items, clubs and hotels, and industrial users of denatured spirit, rectified spirit and methanol. The permit fees are paid by the permit holder.
Which law governs it?
Duty is imposed under section 19 of the Sind Abkari Act 1878 (Sind Act V of 1878; methanol added to excisable articles by the Sindh Abkari (Amendment) Ordinance 2002) and licence and permit fees under the Sind Prohibition Rules 1979 (rule 23), made under the Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order 1979. Excise on alcoholic liquor is provincial: the Federal Legislative List excludes it (Constitution, Fourth Schedule, Part I, entry 44).
What is a proof gallon, PMFL and a unit?
PMFL is Pakistan-made potable foreign liquor (rule 23 of the 1979 Rules). A proof gallon is a volume adjusted for alcoholic strength, so the same number of bottles can be a different number of proof gallons; duty on PMFL is charged per proof gallon. A unit, on which the PMFL permit fee is charged, is a quart bottle of spirit, three bottles of wine or sixteen bottles of beer (rule 16).
Why do some licences have two figures?
Two of them cost more in the first year than on renewal: the wholesale trade and import licence is Rs 700,000 to take out and Rs 600,000 a year after that, and the retail licence is Rs 500,000 then Rs 350,000. The first-year bill is not the recurring one, so there is a switch for it and the calculator says which basis it is showing.
How is a hotel licence priced?
It has no fixed amount: the fee is charged yearly at the average one-day room rent multiplied by 100 (rule 23). A hotel whose rooms average Rs 10,000 a night pays Rs 1,000,000 a year.
What is the naukarnama fee?
A per-person annual charge on staff who deal in liquor or maintain the accounts: Rs 100 each per year, or Rs 50 each per year for staff under a dealing-minor licence. It multiplies by headcount, so it is entered as a number of people.
Why is the establishment charge missing?
Because it cannot be calculated. The schedule bills it annually on a private bonded warehouse or distillery "as per salary and allowance as advance" — it depends on the staff the department posts, so no figure can be derived from the published page. It is listed below the calculator rather than guessed at.
Is the excise duty the same across provinces?
No. Excise on alcoholic liquor is provincial: the Federal Legislative List excludes it (Constitution, Fourth Schedule, Part I, entry 44), and Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan run their own schedules under their own laws. These amounts are Sindh only.
Is the storage fee still payable?
The Sindh High Court held a 2014 notification charging a storage fee on rectified spirit in private bonded warehouses (Rs 0.50 a litre) without jurisdiction (C.P. D-1781 of 2015, short order 10 April 2023). That fee was at a different rate, so it is not known to be this one; check with the department before paying it.
Are any licences listed twice?
Two pairs may be one licence listed twice on the department's page: retail sale to permit holders and the retail licence, and the bonders licence and the wholesale trade and import licence. Tick one of each pair unless the department confirms both apply.
Are these amounts current?
They are the department's published schedule as read on 17 September 2026. The rates are set under section 19 of the Abkari Act and rule 23 of the 1979 Rules, which the Government amends by notification; the Sindh Finance Acts 2024 to 2026 do not change them. Check the department's schedule before relying on a figure.
I am looking for vehicle excise tax in Sindh. Is this it?
No. The same department collects motor vehicle registration and transfer fees and token tax; registration and transfer fees are on the Sindh vehicle tax calculator. This page is the department's excise duty and licence schedule for liquor, spirit, methanol and intoxicants.
Sources
Where the rules come from
Transcribed from the department’s published schedule on . Re-read attempted 29 October 2026: excise.gos.pk returned 403 to an automated request, so the figures were not re-checked that day; the Sindh Finance Acts 2024, 2025 and 2026 were searched and contain no change to these duties or fees.
Related tools
Federal excise duty as well?
FED on goods and services is a separate federal charge under the Federal Excise Act 2005.
Open the Federal Excise Duty Calculator