Tax & compliance

How Does PRA e-Invoicing (e-IMS) Work for Restaurants in Punjab?

Updated 2026-09-03 · 7 min read · By the Restozay team

The short answer

PRA e-invoicing (e-IMS) is the Punjab Revenue Authority's cloud system for recording restaurant sales as they happen. When a bill is completed, your POS sends the invoice to e-IMS, gets a unique fiscal invoice number back, and prints that number plus a verification QR code on the customer's receipt, usually within seconds.

It applies to Punjab restaurants registered for Punjab Sales Tax on Services once PRA notifies them, so check the current PRA notification for your category.

Restozay has e-IMS built in: every completed order is fiscalized automatically, included in the PKR 10,000/month Basic plan with no per-order fee.

PRA e-invoicing in 60 seconds

The Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) collects sales tax on services in Punjab, and food service is one of the categories it covers. Notified restaurants are required to connect their billing systems to PRA's electronic Invoice Monitoring System (e-IMS) — a cloud service that records each invoice as it is issued, rather than only through a periodic return. What is required, and of whom, is set by PRA notifications and changes over time, so check the current PRA notification for your category.

In practice the flow is simple: the bill is closed at the POS, the invoice data goes to PRA's system, PRA returns a unique fiscal invoice number, and that number plus a QR code print on the customer's receipt. Anyone can scan the QR to check the invoice against PRA's records.

You still file your sales tax returns as required, but PRA also holds invoice-level data. For the owner, an integrated POS means nothing extra to do per bill — fiscalization happens in the background.

Who must comply? Restaurants under Punjab Sales Tax on Services

Restaurants, cafés, caterers and similar food-service businesses in Punjab fall under the Punjab Sales Tax on Services Act, 2012, which means registering with PRA and charging sales tax on customer bills. The standard rate on restaurant services is commonly reported as 16% as of 2026, and PRA has at times allowed a lower rate (commonly reported at around 5%) where the customer pays by card or other digital means. Rates and conditions move with notifications, so confirm the current rate with PRA or your tax advisor before you print anything on menus or receipts.

e-IMS integration itself is applied through PRA notifications, and the rollout is commonly reported to have moved in phases, starting with larger and branded outlets. Whether your restaurant is required to integrate today depends on the notifications in force and on any correspondence you have received from PRA. Thresholds and category lists change, so check the latest PRA notification or ask your tax advisor rather than relying on an older figure.

How e-IMS works: from completed order to fiscal invoice number and QR

Order completed at the POS. The bill is finalised — items, quantities, discounts, tax and total are locked.
The POS builds the invoice payload. Itemised amounts, the tax rate applied and your registration identifiers are packaged in the format PRA's system expects.
The invoice is sent to the e-IMS cloud API. This happens over an ordinary internet connection from the billing system; what else your category is required to have in place is set out in PRA's rules.
PRA validates and responds. e-IMS records the invoice and returns a unique fiscal invoice number, normally within seconds.
The receipt prints with the fiscal number and QR code. The QR encodes the invoice reference so it can be verified against PRA's records.
The invoice sits in PRA's records and should reconcile with the sales you declare in your return.

One practical note: internet drops happen. Ask any POS vendor exactly what their system does with bills completed during an outage, and how those invoices reach e-IMS afterwards. Get that answer before you buy, not during a power cut.

What does a PRA-compliant receipt look like?

A fiscalized restaurant receipt in Punjab generally carries two layers of information: your own tax identity, and the proof that this specific invoice was reported. Expect to show:

Business details: restaurant name, branch address and contact.
Tax identifiers: NTN, STRN and your PRA registration, plus the POS or system ID where applicable.
Invoice details: invoice number, date and time; itemised list with quantities and prices.
Tax breakdown: taxable amount, the rate applied, tax amount and grand total.
Fiscal proof: the fiscal invoice number returned by e-IMS and the verification QR code.

The exact mandatory fields and layout come from PRA's rules and can be updated, so check the current PRA notification when designing your receipt. In Restozay, the drag-and-drop receipt designer (58mm and 80mm) includes a tax block for NTN, STRN and POS ID, and the fiscal invoice number and QR code are printed automatically on every completed order.

What happens if you don't comply?

Non-compliance with Punjab sales tax rules carries real consequences under the Punjab Sales Tax on Services Act — penalties, default surcharge on unpaid tax, and audit or assessment proceedings. Enforcement drives against restaurants have been reported in the press over the years, including the sealing of premises. Specific penalty amounts change with amendments, so do not rely on figures from older articles; ask your tax advisor what applies today.

Beyond formal penalties, there are quieter risks. Invoice-level data makes any gap between reported sales and filed returns easier for the authority to spot. And a customer who scans a QR that does not verify — or notices there is no QR at all — may draw their own conclusions about where the tax on the bill is going. For a documented restaurant, printing a verifiable fiscal invoice is the cheaper outcome, especially when the POS does it without anyone at the counter thinking about it.

How does Restozay fiscalize orders automatically?

PRA e-IMS fiscal invoicing is built into Restozay. When a bill is completed, Restozay reports the invoice to PRA's e-IMS cloud system and prints the returned fiscal invoice number and QR code on the receipt automatically — no separate middleware subscription, no commission and no per-order fee. Restozay runs in a browser on any laptop, desktop or Android tablet, so there is no special POS terminal to buy.

Power cuts and internet drops are part of life here, so Restozay includes an offline billing mode: you keep billing through the cut, and the system syncs once the connection is back. Kitchen tickets go out over remote thermal printing, so the kitchen printer does not have to sit on a shared LAN with the billing machine.

Setup is free — menu import and staff training included — and most restaurants are live the same day, with setup usually taking under an hour. Fiscal invoicing is part of the Basic plan at PKR 10,000/month: no setup fee, no commission, no long-term contract (see pricing, or the full cost breakdown in our POS price guide). More than 100 restaurants run on Restozay today.

PRA vs FBR vs SRB: which authority applies to you?

Pakistan splits restaurant taxation between federal and provincial authorities, and owners often mix them up. The short version: sales tax on restaurant services is provincial, while income tax (and sales tax on goods) is federal.

Authority	Where	What it means for a restaurant
PRA (Punjab Revenue Authority)	Punjab — Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Multan, Rahim Yar Khan and the rest	Sales tax on your food-service bills; e-IMS e-invoicing with fiscal number and QR
SRB (Sindh Revenue Board)	Sindh — Karachi, Hyderabad	Sindh sales tax on services; SRB sets its own invoicing and monitoring requirements, so check current SRB rules
KPRA / BRA	Khyber Pakhtunkhwa / Balochistan	Provincial sales tax on services in those provinces, under their own rules
FBR (federal)	All Pakistan	Income tax and sales tax on goods; FBR also runs its own POS integration regime for notified retailers

So a restaurant in Lahore deals with PRA for sales tax on its bills and with FBR for income tax. A single business can touch more than one authority, so confirm your registrations with a tax advisor rather than assuming.

Getting PRA-ready without the paperwork

Invoice-level reporting is clearly the direction restaurant taxation in Punjab is heading, and a POS that fiscalizes automatically turns compliance from a monthly headache into a background process. The checklist is short: be registered with PRA, charge the correct current rate, and make sure every completed bill carries a fiscal invoice number and verification QR code.

Restozay handles that last part out of the box, alongside the rest of the system — offline billing, WhatsApp receipts, inventory and reports. If you are still comparing options, start with our guide to the best restaurant POS software in Pakistan. Want to see e-IMS fiscalization on your own receipts? WhatsApp us at +92 303 3930338 — free setup, and most restaurants are live the same day.

FAQ

Common questions.

Is PRA e-invoicing mandatory for my restaurant?

If your restaurant operates in Punjab and is registered for Punjab Sales Tax on Services, e-IMS integration applies once PRA notifies your category. The rollout is commonly reported to have moved in phases, from larger outlets towards smaller ones. Whether you are covered right now depends on the notifications currently in force, so check the latest PRA notification or ask your tax advisor. If you are PRA-registered, it is safest to assume integration is coming and choose a POS that already supports it.

What must be printed on a PRA-compliant receipt?

In broad terms: restaurant name and address, tax registration details (NTN/STRN and your PRA registration), invoice number with date and time, itemised products with prices, the taxable amount, tax rate and tax amount, the grand total, the fiscal invoice number returned by e-IMS, and the PRA verification QR code. Exact field and layout requirements come from PRA's rules and can change, so confirm against the current notification. Restozay's receipt designer includes a tax block for NTN, STRN and POS ID, and prints the fiscal number and QR code automatically.

Can customers verify my invoice QR?

Yes, that is the point of the QR code. A customer scans the code on the receipt and checks through PRA's verification channels that the invoice was genuinely reported to the authority. PRA has publicised invoice verification to the public as part of its documentation drive. A receipt that verifies cleanly shows that your restaurant is documented and that the tax on the bill is being reported.

Does Restozay handle PRA integration for me?

Yes. PRA e-IMS fiscal invoicing is built into Restozay: when an order is completed, it is reported to PRA's e-IMS cloud system and the fiscal invoice number plus QR code print on the receipt automatically. There is no separate middleware to buy, no commission and no per-order fee, and setup is free, so most restaurants go live the same day. It is included from the Basic plan at PKR 10,000/month.

What about restaurants outside Punjab?

Sales tax on restaurant services is provincial: Sindh restaurants deal with SRB, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with KPRA and Balochistan with BRA, each under its own rules, which you should confirm with your tax advisor. Restozay's built-in fiscal module covers PRA e-IMS specifically; everything else in the system, including the POS, offline billing, WhatsApp, inventory and reports, works anywhere in Pakistan. If you are outside Punjab, message us about your province and we will tell you honestly what we do and do not cover.