Changelog

What changed in FBR and PRA invoicing

Digital invoicing rules in Pakistan move by notification, and a notification can supersede another inside six months. This is a dated record of what changed and what it replaced.

Start with the guide Book a Demo

Every entry here is checked against the gazetted instrument rather than press reporting, and names the instrument by number and date so you can read it yourself. Where the widely reported version differs from the text, the entry says so. This is general information and not tax or legal advice — confirm your own position with a qualified adviser.

Federal · 2026

FBR digital invoicing

The federal changes that alter what a business owes, or what a credit is worth.

  1. 1 July 2026

    Section 64D substituted — the POS machine credit is gone

    The Finance Act 2026 substituted section 64D of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001. The section it replaced was inserted by the Finance Act 2021 and gave a credit for point of sale machines worth the lesser of the amount invested or Rs 150,000 per machine. That credit is repealed. What stands in its place is a credit of 10% of the amount invested in eligible electronic resources used to integrate with FBR digital invoicing, available only in the tax year the resources are installed, integrated and fully configured, and only to a person required to integrate.

  2. 30 March 2026

    STGO 01 of 2026 — a 72-hour correction window

    An issued electronic invoice may be cancelled, deleted or edited within 72 hours for a genuine error; after that it takes prior approval of the Commissioner Inland Revenue. The window runs from the time of generation of the invoice, which is a time and not a date. PRAL’s user manual measures it from the insertion date instead, and that divergence appears in no SRO, STGO or rule.

  3. 18 February 2026

    SRO 288(I)/2026 published as a draft — and still is

    Published under section 237(3) of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 for objections within seven days, proposing to substitute Chapter VIIA of the Income Tax Rules 2002. No final notification has followed, so it imposes no obligation. The existing Chapter VIIA, as amended by SRO 428(I)/2024, remains in force for those already covered. Its list of notified categories is widely quoted as though it were live scope; it is not.

Punjab

PRA and the Electronic Invoice Monitoring System

Punjab holds about 61% of the country's registered establishments, and its e-IMS obligation is older and broader than the enforcement drive that made the news.

  1. August 2026

    PRA enforcement drive against handwritten receipts

    A province-wide push against handwritten receipts, kitchen order slips and pre-bills at hotels, restaurants, coffee shops and marriage halls. Issuing receipts that bypass E-IMS carries Rs 400,000 to Rs 1,000,000, and three such acts can lead to sealing for up to a month. Widely reported as a ban commencing on a single day in August. Nothing commenced then — the duty to invoice through e-IMS rests on the 2019 Rules, and PRA was issuing show-cause notices over it in 2024.

  2. 9 July 2024

    The restaurant threshold falls to Rs 6 million — two years ago

    PRA Notification PRA/Orders.06/2023/441, gazetted 15 July 2024, substituted rule 3 of the Punjab Electronic Invoice Monitoring System Rules 2019. Restaurant services move from Rs 10 million to Rs 6 million; every other service stays at Rs 10 million. The test is turnover, not income, measured in FY 2017-18 or any subsequent year. Reported as new in 2026, it dates to 2024.

  3. 21 February 2020

    Punjab e-IMS Rules 2019 notified

    PRA Notification PRA/Orders.06/2019, made under section 76 of the Punjab Sales Tax on Services Act 2012, with the enabling power in section 59B(2A) inserted by the Punjab Finance Act 2019. Rule 11 repealed the Punjab Restaurant Invoice Monitoring System Rules 2015, deliberately widening the regime from restaurants to all registered persons. The Rules carry no schedule of covered sectors at all.

Federal · 2025 and before

How the current timetable was arrived at

Three notifications in eleven months, each superseding the last. Anything citing the first two is describing a position that has ended.

  1. 24 September 2025

    SRO 1852(I)/2025 — the timetable in force

    Issued in supersession of SRO 1413(I)/2025, which had itself superseded SRO 709(I)/2025 of 22 April 2025. It phases all sales tax registered persons through registration, testing and electronic invoicing, from 15 October 2025 for public companies, importers and companies above Rs 1 billion turnover, through to 10 December 2025 for everyone else. Every date in it has now passed.

  2. 1 July 2025

    Sections 23(5) and (6) inserted

    Added to the Sales Tax Act 1990 by the Finance Act 2025. Worth noting because Chapter XIV of the Sales Tax Rules 2006 is often described as detail made under them — it cannot be, since the Chapter was substituted five months earlier. The duty to issue an electronic invoice is section 23(3), substituted by the Finance Act 2024.

  3. 29 January 2025

    SRO 69(I)/2025 substitutes Chapter XIV

    The whole of Chapter XIV of the Sales Tax Rules 2006 replaced, under section 50 read with sections 3(9A), 22, 23 and 40C. This is where the integrator licensing regime sits, including rule 150XH(2)(e) — which requires a registration certificate from the Pakistan Software Houses Association or ICAP, and not, as is often written, from PSEB.

Sindh

SRB, for businesses trading in both provinces

Included because a business in Karachi and Lahore answers to two authorities, and the penalty position in Sindh is the most commonly misquoted figure in this area.

  1. 1 July 2026

    The SRB Schedule substituted, and confidentiality added

    Notification SRB-3-4/25/2026 of 30 June 2026 substituted the Schedule to the Online Integration of Business Rules 2022. Section 73A, inserted by the Sindh Finance Act 2026, makes filed particulars confidential while permitting disclosure to an authorised federal or provincial authority. FBR is named nowhere in it.

  2. 1 July 2024

    Serial 7B omitted — and the penalty ceiling became the floor

    The Sindh Finance Act 2024 substituted Serial 2B of section 43 of the Sindh Sales Tax on Services Act 2011: a penalty of up to Rs 1,000,000 but not less than Rs 100,000, with sealing on repetition and imprisonment of up to one year on conviction. The same Act omitted Serial 7B entirely. Pages still quoting Rs 100,000 as the maximum are describing the position before this date and understate exposure tenfold.

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Where to go next

FBR digital invoicing

What the obligation is, who it covers and how the flow works.

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PRA e-IMS in Punjab

The turnover test, what the receipt must carry, and the penalty position.

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Invoice error codes

Search the validation errors by code or by the message FBR returned.

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