ISLAMABAD: In a major relief for Pakistan’s business community, the government on Friday extended the deadline for traders to integrate with the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) real-time electronic invoicing system by seven months, acknowledging the earlier timeline as impractical.
According to a new Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO), the FBR has now divided businesses into seven categories, replacing the earlier two-category system, and has announced staggered deadlines to complete registration and integration of point-of-sale (POS) systems with the FBR’s central database.
The new notification, which supersedes the April 2025 order, pushes the final deadline for electronic transmission of invoices to December 1, 2025. Businesses and associations of persons with annual turnovers exceeding Rs100 million must integrate by October 1.
While the move was welcomed by traders, many argue the extended timeline is still ambitious, given FBR’s limited capacity and the technical readiness of licensed private integrators.
Integration services will be provided by four authorized firms: Haball Limited, Webdnworks Pvt Ltd, EY Ford Rhodes, and Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL)—an FBR-owned subsidiary.
By law, only an FBR-licensed integrator can configure a taxpayer’s electronic invoicing software for real-time invoice transmission. The cost has been capped at Rs10 per invoice or Rs1 million, whichever is lower.
This extension addresses one of four major demands by traders, who had conditioned their return to regular business hours on the following:
Removal of arrest powers on suspicion of fraud
Abolition of income additions based on cash expenses over Rs200,000
Withdrawal of FBR field inspectors from business premises
Delay in e-invoicing integration
Failure to comply with the extended deadline or any clause of the Sales Tax Act could result in penal action, the FBR warned.
As per the revised schedule, public sector entities, importers, and companies with over Rs1 billion turnover must transmit e-invoices by September 1. Other corporate entities have until October 1, while businesses with under Rs1 billion in turnover must comply by November 1.
Pakistan currently has about 390,000 registered sales tax entities, but only around 60,000 actually pay any tax, according to FBR data. Experts say this gap persists partly due to the additional 4% sales tax on transactions with unregistered buyers, which the IMF has refused to eliminate without a 25% increase in the tax base.
Instead of registering, many businesses prefer paying the extra tax and passing the cost on to consumers, staying outside the formal tax net.
Meanwhile, the government is considering two options to ease compliance costs:
A Rs40–60 billion subsidy to cover invoice fees
A free e-invoicing solution via PRAL
Regardless of cost, electronic invoicing will become mandatory. All registered persons must install the FBR-approved system through one of the licensed integrators.
