The Federal Board of Revenue has decided to take punitive enforcement action from July 1, 2026 against importers who have failed to integrate with or comply with the Digital Invoicing System, with the most operationally significant penalty being removal from the green channel facility at the import stage, a measure that will substantially increase clearance times and inspection burdens for non-compliant businesses.
The tax authority has taken notice of the slow pace of registration, integration, and issuance of electronic invoices by importers under the Digital Invoicing regime, with the matter reportedly being treated as a priority area under FBR’s Transformation Plan, which aims to improve documentation, transparency, and real-time reporting of taxable supplies across the economy. A substantial number of active importers have yet to integrate with the Digital Invoicing System, while several importers who have already completed integration are still not issuing electronic invoices through the prescribed system. The measures under consideration include initiation of penalty proceedings, suspension of sales tax registration, and removal of non-compliant importers from the green channel at the import stage until they complete compliance with Digital Invoicing requirements.
Under SRO 1852(I)/2025, importers were required to integrate with the Digital Invoicing System by October 25, 2025 and issue all invoices through the system from November 1, 2025. The enforcement action therefore comes eight months after the original compliance deadline, suggesting that FBR gave importers a considerable grace period before moving to formal penalties. The July 1 date aligns with the start of the new fiscal year and the broader package of digital tax enforcement measures that FBR is simultaneously activating, including mandatory digital invoicing across the sales tax system and online access to banks’ central databases for tax enforcement purposes. For importers who have continued to operate outside the Digital Invoicing System despite the October 2025 deadline, the combination of green channel removal, penalty proceedings, and sales tax registration suspension represents a material escalation in consequences that will be difficult to ignore or absorb without urgently completing the required integration.
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