Guide
Last verified
FBR Digital Invoicing: Deadlines & Penalties
Pakistan's electronic invoicing deadlines have been extended repeatedly since SRO 69(I)/2025. Original SRO 709(I)/2025 dates of 1 May and 1 June 2025 moved to 1 June and 1 July 2025, then to a staggered rollout under SRO 1852(I)/2025. Penalties sit in section 33 of the Sales Tax Act 1990; FBR does not publish rupee amounts in its FAQ.
Not tax advice — This guide is general information, not tax or legal advice. Pakistan's e-invoicing rules have been amended and their deadlines extended repeatedly since 2025, so the position may have changed since this page was last verified. Confirm your own obligations with FBR directly or with a qualified tax advisor before acting.
Timeline of the rules
| Date | Instrument | What it did |
|---|---|---|
| 29 Jan 2025 | SRO 69(I)/2025 | Replaced Chapter XIV of the Sales Tax Rules 2006 with new rules for licensing integrators, integration, and issuing electronic invoices. |
| 22 Apr 2025 | SRO 709(I)/2025 | Extended electronic invoicing to all corporate and non-corporate registered persons. Set initial deadlines of 1 May 2025 (corporate) and 1 June 2025 (non-corporate). |
| 2025 | Extension | Deadlines pushed to 1 June 2025 for corporate and 1 July 2025 for non-corporate entities. |
| 2025 | SRO 1852(I)/2025 | Introduced a staggered, phased rollout reported as running from 15 October to 31 December 2025. |
| 18 Feb 2026 | SRO 288(I)/2026 | Replaced Chapter VIIA of the Income Tax Rules 2002. Required notified enterprises to report outlet, POS and e-invoicing transaction details online. |
| 2026 | STGO 01 of 2026 | Clarified operation: 72-hour window to cancel, delete or edit an invoice within FBR's system; permitted engaging more than one licensed integrator. |
Why the deadlines kept moving
Because the scope expanded faster than the infrastructure and the taxpayer base could absorb. Going from a few thousand Tier-1 retailers to every sales-tax-registered person in the country is a change of a different order, and it required integrators, software vendors and businesses to all be ready at once.
The practical lesson for a business owner is not that deadlines do not matter. It is that the direction of travel has never reversed. Every amendment since January 2025 has widened the net, not narrowed it. Treating an extension as a reprieve rather than as extra preparation time is a bet against a trend that has been consistent for over a year.
What are the penalties for non-compliance?
FBR's published FAQ states that registered persons who fail to integrate within the deadlines face penalties "defined in the section 33 of the Act" — section 33 of the Sales Tax Act 1990 — and that licensed integrators contravening the provisions face penal action under the same section.
We are not going to put a rupee figure on this page. FBR does not publish one in its FAQ, and the amounts circulating on POS vendor websites disagree with each other wildly — the highest figure we found while researching this page was roughly sixty times the lowest, and both claimed to describe the same kind of failure. They are also, almost without exception, published by companies selling compliance software.
Read section 33 of the Sales Tax Act as it currently stands, or ask a tax advisor what applies to your specific situation. A number you found on a software vendor's blog is not a basis for a compliance decision.
Note — Beyond monetary penalties, reporting through 2026 has described consequences including business restrictions and enforcement action for continued non-compliance. Verify the current position with FBR — enforcement posture changes faster than the rules do.
What is the deadline right now?
Deliberately not stated here as a fixed date, because this page cannot stay accurate on that point. The record above shows deadlines being reset at least three times between April 2025 and the end of that year.
Check FBR's own notifications for the current position before making a decision that depends on it. If you need a date to plan against, ask your licensed integrator or tax advisor to confirm the one that applies to your registration type in writing.
Sources
Every factual claim on this page traces to one of the following. Where FBR publishes something directly, that is what we have used.
Related
FAQ
Questions, answered.
FBR's published FAQ states that penalties are those defined in section 33 of the Sales Tax Act 1990, without specifying amounts. Rupee figures circulating on POS vendor websites vary enormously and should not be relied on. Read the current text of section 33 or ask a qualified tax advisor what applies to your case.
SRO 709(I)/2025 originally set 1 May 2025 for corporate registered persons and 1 June 2025 for non-corporate. Those moved to 1 June and 1 July 2025 respectively, and SRO 1852(I)/2025 then introduced a staggered rollout reported as running from 15 October to 31 December 2025. Because dates have been reset repeatedly, confirm the current deadline with FBR directly.
Under STGO 01 of 2026, a valid electronic invoice may be cancelled, deleted or edited within FBR's system within 72 hours of issuance. After that window, changes require prior approval from the Commissioner Inland Revenue.
Nobody outside FBR can answer that, and it is the wrong question to plan around. Every amendment since January 2025 has widened the scope rather than narrowing it, so the useful assumption is that the requirement is coming regardless of the specific date attached to it.