FBR vs SRB, PRA, KPRA & BRA: Who Handles Service E-Invoicing in Pakistan (2026)

After the 18th Amendment, sales tax on services was devolved to the provinces. The Sindh Revenue Board (SRB), Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority (KPRA) and Balochistan Revenue Authority (BRA) each administer sales tax on services in their province, while FBR administers federal sales tax on goods and sales tax on services in the Islamabad Capital Territory. A service business often deals with a provincial authority for its output tax, not with FBR.

FBR's Digital Invoicing system grew out of the federal sales-tax-on-goods regime. That is why, until 2026, most service providers sat outside its scope — their sales tax on services was a provincial matter reported to SRB, PRA, KPRA or BRA rather than to FBR.

SRO 288(I)/2026, issued in draft on 18 February 2026, proposes a new Chapter VIIA of the Income Tax Rules, 2002 for the online integration of businesses. Because it is framed under income tax rules rather than sales tax, it can reach service providers and professionals that provincial sales tax rules already cover — requiring them to declare outlets and points of sale, issue real-time QR invoices through the FBR system, and, in some categories, install CCTV at points of sale.

Reporting on the draft lists service categories such as restaurants, hotels, salons, clinics, laboratories, courier and transport services and professional firms. The draft is not yet effective: it becomes enforceable only after FBR issues a final notification and an implementing general order with dates.

In March 2026, provincial revenue authorities publicly opposed SRO 288, asking FBR not to issue the final notification until it consults them. Their concern, as reported, is duplication — a service provider already integrated with, and invoicing under, a provincial authority could face a second, overlapping federal reporting obligation for the same transactions.

For businesses, the practical risk is uncertainty. Until the jurisdictional question is settled, a service provider may not know whether an invoice belongs in the provincial system, the FBR system, or both — which is why confirming your own position with both FBR and your provincial authority matters before you change anything.

If your sales tax on services is registered with a provincial authority, keep meeting those obligations as normal; the draft SRO does not remove them. At the same time, watch for FBR's final notification and any implementing order, because that is what would create a federal online-integration duty and its go-live date.

Where a business supplies both goods and services, the goods side may already fall under FBR Digital Invoicing (through SRO 1852(I)/2025 and related notifications) while the services side stays provincial for now. Mapping each revenue line to the right authority avoids both double-reporting and missed deadlines.

The low-risk path is to be technically ready to issue FBR digital invoices for anything clearly in federal scope — your taxable supplies of goods, and services in the Islamabad Capital Territory — while keeping provincial filings unchanged. Readiness is mostly a software question: being able to post a compliant, QR-stamped invoice on demand.

Digi Invoice validates and posts invoices through FBR's Digital Invoicing API for supplies that fall under FBR, and keeps every posted invoice in a searchable ledger, so a mixed goods-and-services business can act the moment its category and authority are confirmed. Always confirm your current obligations with FBR (iris.fbr.gov.pk) and your provincial revenue authority, because the services position is still being settled in 2026.