Phoenix O & M (Private) Limited v. Commissioner General of Inland Revenue – CA TAX/0022/2014-2022

In the case between Phoenix O & M (Private) Limited (Appellant) and Commissioner General of Inland Revenue (Respondent), the court addressed the issue of whether the Economic Service Charge (ESC) liability of an advertising agency should be determined based solely on the commission earned or on the total amount billed, including sums payable to third-party media. The court held that ESC liability arises on the total amount billed/receivable from clients, not limited to the agency’s commission, reaffirming the principle that, where statutory text is clear, tax liabilities are determined by the explicit terms of the statute. This decision relied on the interpretation of Section 2(3)(b) of the ESC Act and emphasized that analogies to other statutory regimes or external evidence do not overrid