Pakistani online shoppers have begun to notice substantial tax additions while placing orders on AliExpress, with reports indicating that in some instances, taxes now account for as much as 70 to 80 percent of the product’s value. The Chinese e-commerce platform has recently started listing detailed tax amounts separately at checkout for Pakistani customers, sparking confusion and frustration among frequent online buyers. In one example, a $36.96 order on AliExpress showed $25.87 in added taxes, bringing the total to $62.83 — a sharp increase of more than 70 percent on the base price.
This development follows Pakistan’s earlier policy shift to expand its tax collection framework on international e-commerce imports. The government had directed platforms such as AliExpress and Temu to collect taxes at the source in order to regulate cross-border transactions and increase domestic revenue. The move came as part of broader efforts to bring global digital platforms under Pakistan’s tax net and address the revenue loss from untaxed online imports. However, this sudden addition of taxes comes shortly after the government rolled back the 5% digital presence tax imposed earlier on foreign e-commerce platforms.
Under the revised policy, the digital presence tax was officially withdrawn, with the rollback applied retroactively from July 1, 2025. The change was meant to ease the compliance burden on foreign digital service providers and encourage international platforms to continue serving Pakistani consumers. Despite this, AliExpress has begun implementing new tax structures on cross-border orders, reflecting separate charges at checkout. Industry analysts suggest that this may be a result of ongoing efforts by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to improve collection efficiency through source-based taxation mechanisms that directly involve global platforms in the process.
Interestingly, Temu — another popular cross-border e-commerce platform — has not yet reflected similar tax additions for Pakistani buyers, suggesting that the implementation of the new system may still be in early stages or platform-specific. For consumers, however, the effect is immediate and tangible. The sharp rise in total payable amounts has led to widespread complaints online, with many users expressing concern that small affordable imports have become significantly more expensive.
AliExpress has not released an official statement regarding the development, though its checkout interface now displays a line noting that “taxes are listed separately under ‘Tax’ at checkout.” The move could reshape Pakistan’s small-scale e-commerce landscape by discouraging purchases from international platforms and pushing consumers toward local marketplaces. Analysts believe that while the government’s intent is to strengthen tax collection and promote fair trade, the resulting increase in costs could dampen cross-border e-commerce activity and affect consumer trust in global online retail platforms.
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