What FBR digital invoicing actually costs

FBR itself charges nothing: under rule 150XO(2) of the Sales Tax Rules 2006, no fee is payable by the Board or its field formations. What you actually pay for is the software subscription, a one time integration, possibly a static IP, and your own people's time. On Axiom Square's published prices that is PKR 2,000 to PKR 5,000 a month by invoice volume plus a one time PKR 5,000 integration.

Everything below is about the federal system. If you are a service business billing in Punjab you are dealing with a separate authority, and our PRA digital invoicing page covers that side.

First, what FBR charges you: nothing

This surprises people, so it is worth stating plainly and citing. Under rule 150XO(2) of the Sales Tax Rules 2006, "No fee shall be payable by the Board and any of its field formations." There is no government fee to become an integrated person and no charge for the API.

Further, rule 150XF provides that PRAL, the Pakistan Revenue Automation company, acts as a licensed integrator, and rule 150XF(2) provides that "PRAL shall provide free of cost integration services to the registered persons on demand." Rule 150XF(3) adds that PRAL, when required by the Board, provides downloadable electronic invoicing or point of sale software free of cost on FBR's official website.

So the floor on this is genuinely zero rupees paid to government. Every cost that follows is a private cost, and the law says so directly. Rule 150R(10): "The cost for integration including the cost of equipment and electronic invoicing software or point of sales software shall be borne by the integrated person."

The four things you actually pay for

1. Software subscription

This is the recurring cost of the system that generates compliant invoices and talks to FBR. Ours is priced by invoice volume, because that is what actually drives the work:

• Starter, PKR 2,000 per month. Zero to 50 invoices per month.
• Growth, PKR 3,000 per month. 51 to 200 invoices per month.
• Business, PKR 5,000 per month. 201 to 500 invoices per month.
• Enterprise, on request. Above 500 invoices per month.

For other vendors' published prices side by side, see FBR digital invoicing software compared. If you already run an ERP, this component may instead be a module or a connector rather than a separate invoicing product. That is a different shape of cost and we cover the trade offs in which Odoo FBR module should you use.

2. One time integration

FBR integration is a one time PKR 5,000 setup. That covers getting your business registered on FBR's system, working through the sandbox scenarios that apply to your business activity, and taking you live on a production token.

It is worth understanding what that work is, because it is the part most likely to be underestimated by whoever quotes you. FBR defines twenty eight named test scenarios, SN001 through SN028, and section 10 of PRAL's technical specification maps which of them apply to your sector. A manufacturer in a general sector is looking at eleven scenarios. Steel, textile, petroleum, telecom, pharmaceuticals and retail each carry different sets. Each one has to be posted successfully with data that genuinely represents that case. Our guide to FBR sandbox testing covers what that involves.

3. The static IP, and an honest note about it

A static IP address is required in practice before you can go live, and it is a real line in your budget rather than a myth. It is worth being precise about where the requirement comes from, because that is where most write ups get confused. It is not stated in PRAL's Technical Specification for DI API version 1.12, which documents authentication as a bearer token in the Authorization header, and it does not appear in Chapter XIV of the Sales Tax Rules 2006 or on FBR's digital invoicing FAQs. It is a practical requirement of the integration process itself rather than something the published API specification spells out. Our guide on whether you need a static IP covers what that means for your connection and what to ask your ISP.

That is not the same as saying it never comes up. Individual integrators may impose their own network controls, and requirements passed on by helpline do not always reach published documentation. So treat this as a question to ask, not a cost to assume. If it does apply to your setup, the price is set by your internet provider as a business plan or an add on, and it varies enough by provider and city that we will not publish a figure we cannot stand behind.

One practical note: if your invoices are submitted from a hosted service rather than from a machine in your office, the question may not arise for you at all, because the connection to FBR is not coming from your premises. That is how our own service works.

4. Your own people's time

This is the largest cost in most projects and it appears on nobody's price list. It breaks down into a few predictable pieces.

• Product catalogue cleanup. Rule 150R(13) requires an HS code and a unit of measurement on every line. Most Pakistani businesses have neither recorded cleanly across their full item list. This is a data project before it is a software project, and it is why we wrote separately about HS codes and the two units question.
• Buyer records. Registration numbers, provinces and addresses for your registered buyers, in the format the API expects.
• Tax mapping. Sale types have to map to the correct rate, and where an SRO applies, to the correct SRO and serial number. Getting this wrong produces rejections. See why FBR invoices get rejected.
• Testing. Someone on your side has to produce realistic data for each applicable scenario and confirm the results.
• Staff training and the first month. Counter staff and billing clerks have to learn a workflow where an invoice is not final until FBR acknowledges it, and where a correction has a deadline.

Two worked examples, using only our published prices

These are simple arithmetic on the prices above. They are not quotes, and they exclude your own internal time, which is the point of the section before this one.

A small service business, about 40 invoices a month

• Starter subscription: PKR 2,000 per month, so PKR 24,000 over twelve months.
• FBR integration setup: PKR 5,000, once.
• First year: PKR 29,000. Each year after that: PKR 24,000.

A distributor, about 300 invoices a month

• Business subscription: PKR 5,000 per month, so PKR 60,000 over twelve months.
• FBR integration setup: PKR 5,000, once.
• First year: PKR 65,000. Each year after that: PKR 60,000.

The distributor also has considerably more internal work, because three hundred invoices a month usually means a much larger item catalogue to get HS codes and units right on.

What we will not tell you: the penalty figures

You will find confident penalty numbers all over this market. They disagree with each other, sometimes by an order of magnitude, and we could not reconcile them against the statute, so we are not going to add another number to the pile.

What we can tell you is where the power sits. Rule 150X provides that an integrated person who tampers with the system, makes sales otherwise than as prescribed, or contravenes the chapter "shall be subject to penalty under section 33 and any restriction under any provisions of the Act or the rules made thereunder". Section 33 of the Sales Tax Act 1990 is the operative provision. If a specific amount matters to your decision, read section 33 directly or have your consultant advise on it for your category, rather than relying on a blog figure. That includes ours.

Rule 150XQ is also worth reading if you are weighing the risk. It establishes Inland Revenue enforcement squads that patrol the premises of integrated persons to verify that invoices are being reported in real time, and requires them to report invoices generated from non integrated software to the Commissioner for recovery.

If you genuinely cannot make the date

Rule 150V is not widely mentioned and is occasionally useful. The Commissioner Inland Revenue having jurisdiction may allow an extension of time for integration, up to sixty days in aggregate, granted in fifteen day intervals. The proviso is that you continue issuing paper invoices for the extended period. It is an application to the Commissioner, not something you take unilaterally.

Your integration date itself comes from your turnover band under SRO 1413(I)/2025, which superseded SRO 709(I)/2025 on 1 August 2025 and replaced flat corporate and non corporate dates with a schedule banded by turnover declared in your sales tax returns for the preceding twelve months.

Primary sources

• Chapter XIV, Sales Tax Rules 2006, including rules 150R(10), 150V, 150X, 150XF, 150XO and 150XQ: download1.fbr.gov.pk Chapter XIV
• SRO 69(I)/2025 dated 29 January 2025, substituting Chapter XIV: download1.fbr.gov.pk SRO 69(I)/2025
• SRO 1413(I)/2025 dated 1 August 2025, turnover banded integration schedule: download1.fbr.gov.pk SRO 1413(I)/2025
• Sales Tax General Order 01 of 2026 dated 30 March 2026: download1.fbr.gov.pk STGO 01 of 2026
• Technical Specification for DI API version 1.12, PRAL, including the sandbox scenario list and the sector mapping: download1.fbr.gov.pk DI API v1.12
• FBR digital invoicing FAQs: fbr.gov.pk/faqs

Last verified: 22 August 2026. The rules cited above were read from the primary sources listed. Axiom Square prices are our own published prices as at that date. We deliberately publish no FBR penalty figure, because the figures in circulation could not be reconciled against section 33 of the Sales Tax Act 1990. General information, not tax advice. Confirm your obligations, deadlines and exposure with FBR or your tax consultant.