FBR Digital Invoicing for Hardware Stores, Cement & Building Material Dealers (2026)
How hardware shops and cement, tiles, paint and sariya dealers issue FBR digital invoices — cement's fixed per-bag tax, sariya as steel, the rest at 18%.
Quick summary
This guide is for hardware shops and dealers of cement, sariya (steel bars), paint, tiles and sanitary goods. It explains how to send each item on an FBR digital invoice the right way.
The one big idea: your shop sells three kinds of goods that FBR taxes in three different ways. Cement has a fixed tax per bag, sariya follows the steel rules, and everything else is taxed at the normal 18%.
Do hardware and building-material shops need FBR digital invoicing?
Yes, if your shop is registered for sales tax. Under SRO 1852(I)/2025 (dated 24 September 2025), FBR brought every sales-tax-registered person into Digital Invoicing (FBR's system where each invoice is sent to FBR live and comes back with an official number and QR code). The last group had to join by 31 December 2025, and there is no turnover limit.
If your business is not registered for sales tax at all, this rule does not apply to you yet. But if you are registered, you must issue digital invoices. Missing this can bring a penalty that starts at Rs 500,000, so it is not something to leave for later.
Every digital invoice you post gets an IRN (Invoice Reference Number — the unique number FBR gives each invoice) and a QR code (the square barcode a buyer can scan to check the invoice is real).
Cement is taxed per bag, not on the price
Cement and concrete blocks are special. FBR does not charge tax as a percentage of the selling price. Instead there is a fixed amount of tax per unit — for example a set number of rupees per bag. In FBR's system this uses the sale type 'Cement /Concrete Block' and a rate written like 'Rs.3' (rupees per unit), not '18%'.
So the tax is worked out as quantity times the fixed rupee rate. If you sell 100 bags and the fixed rate is Rs 3 per bag, the sales tax on that line is 100 × 3 = Rs 300. If your maths does not match this, FBR rejects the line with error 0105 (the tax amount does not match the calculated quantity-times-rate figure).
Digi Invoice picks the cement sale type and does this per-bag calculation for you, so you do not have to remember the current fixed rate or do the sum by hand.
Sariya (steel bars) follows the steel rules
Steel bars, girders and ingots are not ordinary goods in FBR's eyes. They use a steel sale type, and the unit of measure must be MT (metric tonnes) — not pieces or numbers. If you send sariya with the wrong unit, FBR replies with error 0062, which asks for the MT unit for steel melting and re-rolling.
This matters because a hardware shop that sells both cement and sariya cannot treat them the same way. Cement is fixed-rate per bag; sariya is the steel sale type in MT. Our full steel-sector guide covers the steel side in detail.
Paint, tiles, sanitary and tools are normal 18% goods
The rest of a typical hardware shop — paint, tiles, sanitary ware, pipes, nuts and bolts, tools, wire and fittings — are standard-rate goods. They are taxed at the normal 18%. On these lines the tax is simply the value of the goods times 18%.
If your buyer is unregistered (has no sales tax number), you usually also add further tax on top of the 18% for these standard-rate items. Further tax is an extra amount FBR asks for on sales to unregistered buyers, to encourage more people to register.
One trap to avoid: the reduced 5% rate is not allowed when a single item's value is above Rs 20,000 (error 0079). For a hardware shop this almost never applies, because your paint, tiles and tools are standard 18% anyway — but it is good to know if you ever handle a reduced-rate item.
How to keep a mixed hardware invoice clean
Most hardware invoices carry a mix — a few bags of cement, some sariya, a tin of paint and a box of screws. Each line must carry its own correct sale type, unit and tax. The header (buyer name, date, your shop details) is entered once; the lines carry the differences.
Enter each product once with the right HS code (a customs code that names the product), let the platform pick the matching sale type, and check the unit — bags or numbers for cement and general goods, MT for sariya. If you sell the same product to many walk-in buyers, our bulk upload guide shows how to send a whole day's sales from one Excel sheet.
With Digi Invoice you connect your FBR profile once, and the platform maps each item to the correct sale type, works out the tax, posts to FBR, and prints the invoice with the FBR number, QR code and the required FBR Digital Invoicing logo.
Difficult words in this guide
Cement sale type — FBR's special category for cement and concrete blocks, where tax is a fixed number of rupees per bag, not a percentage of price.
Sariya — steel reinforcement bars; on an FBR invoice they use the steel sale type and the MT (metric tonne) unit.
Further tax — an extra tax added on sales to buyers who have no sales tax registration number.
IRN — Invoice Reference Number, the unique number FBR gives every posted invoice.
HS code — a customs code that identifies a product, such as cement, paint or steel bars.