What is SRO 350(I)/2024?

SRO 350(I)/2024 is a March 2024 FBR notification that amended the Sales Tax Rules, 2006 to digitise filing and curb fake and flying invoices. It made buyer returns provisional until the seller files, and allowed automatic deletion of a purchase invoice where the seller fails to file their monthly return on time.

How does SRO 350 affect my input tax claim?

Your input-tax claim can be treated as provisional and can be disallowed if the seller who issued the invoice does not file their return for the same period by the due date. This makes supplier reliability and verifiable invoices essential to protecting your input tax.

How does digital invoicing help with SRO 350?

Digital Invoicing produces invoices that carry a valid IRN and QR code and are recorded against both parties in real time, which is exactly the verifiable, seller-backed evidence these rules reward. Issuing every invoice through the system keeps your outward supplies matched and your buyers' input tax claimable.

FBR Digital Invoicing · Guide

SRO 350(I)/2024 Explained: The Sales Tax Rule Behind FBR's Fake-Invoice Crackdown

SRO 350(I)/2024 amended Pakistan's Sales Tax Rules to fight fake and flying invoices — provisional returns, seller-filing dependency and automatic deletion of a buyer's purchase invoice. Here is what it does and why it makes real-time digital invoicing matter more than ever.

What SRO 350(I)/2024 is

SRO 350(I)/2024, issued by FBR on 7 March 2024, amended the Sales Tax Rules, 2006 to further digitise sales tax filing and tighten controls against fake and flying invoices. It is one of the foundations of Pakistan's move toward real-time, verified invoicing that later SROs (709(I)/2025, 1852(I)/2025) built on.

The rule changes primarily affect the input-tax side of the monthly return and the relationship between a buyer's claim and the seller who issued the invoice.

Provisional returns and the seller-filing link

Under SRO 350, a sales tax return filed by a buyer of taxable goods is treated as provisional in the IRIS portal until the corresponding seller files their own return for the same tax period by the due date. In other words, your input-tax claim depends on your supplier actually filing.

The intent is to stop input tax being claimed against invoices that no real, filing seller stands behind — a common feature of fake-invoice schemes.

Automatic deletion of unmatched purchase invoices

The rule also introduced automatic removal of a buyer's purchase invoice where the seller fails to file their monthly return by the due date. If your supplier does not file, the matching purchase invoice can be dropped from the system and the input tax disallowed — even if your own paperwork is in order.

This makes the reliability of your suppliers, and the verifiability of every invoice, a direct cashflow issue rather than a paperwork detail.

Why this makes digital invoicing matter more

SRO 350 raised the stakes on unverified invoices; FBR Digital Invoicing is the mechanism that resolves them. An invoice posted through Digital Invoicing carries a unique IRN and QR code and is recorded against both parties in real time, so it is exactly the kind of verifiable, seller-backed invoice these rules reward.

By issuing every invoice through Digi Invoice — validated against the FBR DI v1.12 rules and stamped with its IRN and QR code — you give your buyers clean, claimable input tax and keep your own outward supplies matched in FBR's records. Always confirm the current rules on the FBR portal, as sales tax rules are amended frequently.