Tax on Restaurant Bills in Pakistan (2026): Rates, Card vs Cash and POS Integration

The tax on a restaurant bill in Pakistan depends on the province and how the guest pays. In Punjab it is 8% by card, wallet or QR (since 1 July 2026) and 16% in cash or any other way; in Sindh, 8% and 15%. You must use a tax-integrated POS if your restaurant is air-conditioned (FBR rules) or in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, or turns over at least Rs 6 million a year in Punjab or over Rs 5 million in Sindh.

General information, not legal or tax advice. Rates change with each budget, so confirm your obligations with your tax adviser before you change how you bill.

MenuBeacon makes QR menu, ordering and kitchen software, not POS systems, tax-integrated billing or card processing. We used published law where we found it and named press reports where we didn't, checked on 12 October 2026.

Restaurant tax rates in Pakistan by province (2026)

Checked on 12 October 2026.

• Punjab: PRA's 2026–27 edition of the Punjab Sales Tax on Services Act, Second Schedule, Part III, entry 4 (pages Punjab 217–218) and e-IMS rule 3 (page Punjab 442); start date per Geo Fact Check (updated 16 July 2026).
• Sindh: SRB's restaurant page and SRB-POS FAQ (both undated).
• Islamabad: Profit (2 July 2025). We could not confirm the 2026–27 rates.
• Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: rates depend on the type of restaurant and how the guest pays (KPRA's Act as updated in 2026, Second Schedule, Part II, entry 2), so confirm yours with KPRA or your adviser.

How much tax is on a restaurant bill in Pakistan?

Multiply the bill before tax by your province's rate for the way the guest pays. Illustrative arithmetic for a Rs 4,000 bill before tax:

Paying by card saves this guest Rs 320 in Punjab and Rs 280 in Sindh. At a Sindh restaurant on SRB's List A, a 15% card bill (Rs 600) isn't an error.

Bills may call the tax GST or sales tax. In Punjab and Sindh it is provincial sales tax on services, under each province's own Act; in Islamabad, the authority is FBR. Ask your adviser which label to use.

Two details change the number:

• Service charge. In Punjab, tax is charged on the gross bill, including service charges for waiting at tables (rule 67, PRA's 2026–27 edition, page Punjab 322). Illustrative arithmetic: a Rs 200 service charge adds Rs 32 of tax at the cash rate, or Rs 16 by card.
• Small restaurants in Punjab. PRA's current edition still includes a 2013 exemption for restaurants that meet all four tests: not a chain outlet, not part of a taxable hotel, no air conditioning, and turnover of Rs 6 million a year or less (Notification PRA/Order.06/2012, page Punjab 464). Ask your adviser whether it still covers you.

How to calculate tax (GST) on a restaurant bill

• Tax = price before tax × rate. Total = price before tax + tax.
• To check a total, or where prices include tax, price before tax = price ÷ (1 + rate). For example, Rs 1,160 ÷ 1.16 = Rs 1,000, so Rs 160 is tax at 16% (illustrative).
• Punjab's menu rule (rule 68, page Punjab 323): the menu shows prices before this tax and says they are subject to it. So a Rs 1,000 dish is Rs 1,160 in cash and Rs 1,080 by card (illustrative).
• Filing the menu (same rule): PRA gets a signed copy of the menu, and of any regular price change within 15 days; discounts and short promotions don't count. The rule speaks of a menu card or price list, so ask your adviser whether price changes on a QR menu must be filed too.

Cash or card: why the tax changes at the counter

In Punjab and Sindh, and in Islamabad at its 2025–26 rates, the rate follows the payment method, so one meal has two possible tax amounts. Your billing system must know how the guest is paying before it prints the final bill. MenuBeacon applies one tax rate per restaurant, so it can't switch the rate by payment method.

Punjab's 8% rate comes with no input tax adjustment (Second Schedule, Part III, entry 4, page Punjab 217), so ask your adviser how to treat the tax on your own purchases.

Punjab has more rules on card and QR payment:

• QR payment is compulsory. PRA Circular No. 1 of 2026 (23 January 2026) told restaurants to get a Raast QR-enabled account within 14 days, keep QR payment working and display the code where customers can see it.
• Refusing it is fined. Refusing card, wallet or QR payment costs Rs 400,000 to Rs 1 million for a first default and Rs 300,000 to Rs 1 million for each later one. Three defaults can get the premises sealed for up to a month (section 48 penalty table, entry 25, page Punjab 151). PRA's August 2026 guidelines also urge diners to report refusals (ARY News, 17 August 2026).
• Your bank withholds 8%. Notification No. PRA/Member Legal/816/26 (2 July 2026; PRA's 2026–27 edition, pages Punjab 563–564) makes banks and payment operators collecting agents: they keep 8% of the gross value of each card or digital payment out of your merchant account, deposit it by the 10th of the next month and give you a monthly certificate.

Read literally, the notification takes 8% of the whole payment, which already includes the tax, so the bank's figure could be higher than the tax on your card bills. On a Rs 4,320 card payment, the bill's tax is Rs 320, but 8% is Rs 345.60 (illustrative arithmetic). The notification also covers internet banking, which isn't one of the 8% payment methods on the bill.

Tax for each month is due by the 15th of the next month (section 2(17), rule 71 and Filing of Returns Rules rule 11(2), pages Punjab 76, 324 and 281). Before then, ask your adviser how your bank applies the 8% and how to account for any difference, including on bank transfers. Food delivery platforms collect the tax as agents too (Notification No. PRA.32-24/2026/1313, 19 February 2026, pages Punjab 562–563), so check their statements as well.

What the rules don't settle. In a Business Recorder opinion column (31 July 2026), three lawyers, Huzaima Bukhari, Dr. Ikramul Haq and Abdul Rauf Shakoori, argue that no clear rule covers a bill paid partly in cash and partly by card, or tips, reversals and bank-funded discounts. The column also cites a 24 July 2026 PRA clarification of the bank notification, which we couldn't find on PRA's site. Ask PRA or your adviser how to bill a split payment; don't guess.

Sindh works differently. Branches whose POS is integrated with SRB can apply to charge 15% on every payment, card included, and keep claiming input tax. SRB calls this List A and links both lists from its restaurant page. The trade-off: card-paying guests pay Rs 280 more on a Rs 4,000 bill (illustrative). Ask your adviser which leaves you better off.

Who must use a PRA, SRB, KPRA or FBR-integrated POS?

An integrated POS reports each invoice to the tax authority, and the receipt carries the authority's invoice number or QR code, so anyone can check it. The duties can stack: an air-conditioned Lahore restaurant above Rs 6 million is in PRA's scheme for sales tax and FBR's for income tax.

A quick check: are you in scope?

Assume at least one scheme applies, and confirm with your adviser, if any of these is true (sales per day are illustrative arithmetic on a 365-day year):

• Your restaurant has air conditioning installed (FBR, every province).
• Punjab: turnover of Rs 6 million or more in a financial year, about Rs 16,400 of sales a day. A press report says all restaurants must issue receipts through e-IMS (Dunya News, 10 August 2026), so ask PRA or your adviser if you're below the threshold.
• Sindh: turnover above Rs 5 million in the preceding 12 tax periods, about Rs 13,700 a day, or you fit one of SRB's five other categories below.
• Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: you run any restaurant there.

On the same basis, ten Rs 4,000 bills a day is Rs 40,000 a day, or Rs 14.6 million a year. That's nearly three times Sindh's threshold and more than twice Punjab's.

Punjab: PRA's POS integration rules (e-IMS)

• Who. A restaurant with turnover of Rs 6 million or more in a financial year must use e-IMS (rule 3 of PRA's e-IMS Rules 2019, page Punjab 442). A press report says all restaurants must issue receipts through it (Dunya News, 10 August 2026).
• By when. If you already bill on a computer, within three months of the end of the financial year in which you cross the line; if not, six months (rule 4, pages Punjab 442–443).
• Enforcement. PRA sent notices to more than 70 hotels, restaurants and marquees in two days for not using e-IMS (The Lahore Times, 5 October 2026).

Sindh: SRB-POS

SRB's FAQ lists six kinds of restaurant that must integrate with SRB-POS:

• restaurants located in hotels;
• international restaurants that are franchisors or franchisees;
• restaurants with more than one branch in Sindh;
• restaurant outlets in air-conditioned shopping malls;
• restaurants selling through an online marketplace platform;
• restaurants whose turnover in the preceding 12 tax periods exceeded Rs 5 million.

SRB says SRB-POS needs no new hardware and costs nothing from SRB; your POS vendor may still charge to connect it.

Every province: FBR's rules for air-conditioned restaurants

• Who. Every restaurant with air conditioning installed. The POS schedule of the Income Tax Rules, as substituted by SRO 428(I)/2024 (22 March 2024), excludes only restaurants without it.
• How. From 1 July 2024 you integrate through an FBR-licensed integrator, which charges you for configuration and integration (rule 33R). The rules set no amount, so get a written quote.
• What may change. FBR's draft SRO 288(I)/2026 of 18 February 2026 would replace these rules, restaurants included (KPMG, 9 March 2026), but it isn't in force yet (KPMG Pakistan). FBR's POS legal provisions page listed no 2026 SRO on 12 October 2026.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan

KP's Act, as updated in 2026, requires every restaurant to integrate or install RIMS or another system KPRA prescribes, with no turnover threshold (Second Schedule, Part II, entry 2). Failing to do so costs Rs 500,000 or 5% of the tax involved, whichever is higher, each time (section 53, serial 6). KPRA's RIMS documentation recommends a Windows utility that queues invoices while the internet is down; a direct link to KPRA's API needs a connection for every invoice.

This guide doesn't cover Balochistan.

What a restaurant receipt must show, and what you must not hand over

Punjab

• Every restaurant. Register with PRA; if you're already registered with FBR, sign up on PRA's website instead, and your FBR number gets a P prefix (rule 65, pages Punjab 321–322).
• Bills and certificate. Bills must be serial-numbered, show the tax separately and carry the restaurant's tax registration number; a guest can ask for their name and CNIC or NTN on it. A restaurant not run by a company must display its PRA registration certificate near the cash counter (rules 69 and 70, pages Punjab 323–324).
• e-IMS invoices only. A restaurant under e-IMS may issue only invoices generated through e-IMS (rule 6, page Punjab 444). Each shows at least the items, quantity and unit price where relevant, the bill before tax, the tax and the total. Above Rs 50,000 before tax, it adds the customer's name and CNIC, or a business customer's NTN.
• Invoice number and QR code. PRA's August 2026 guidelines, as reported, require a PRA invoice number and QR code on every digital receipt (ProPakistani, 18 August 2026). Dunya News reports that handwritten receipts are banned at restaurants, hotels, coffee shops and marriage halls (10 August 2026).
• Three QR codes. Your menu QR and Raast payment QR don't replace the receipt's PRA QR code, which guests use to check the transaction (The Nation, 18 August 2026).
• Nothing before payment. The guidelines bar giving customers "kitchen orders, unpaid bills, pre-bills or temporary bills" (The Nation, 18 August 2026), and diners are told to check that the receipt came after payment. Restaurants must display the guidelines. We couldn't find them on PRA's own site, so these points rest on press reports.
• Fines. Failing to comply with e-IMS, or issuing invoices that bypass it: Rs 400,000 to Rs 1 million. Failing to issue a tax invoice: Rs 500,000, then Rs 1 million for each later default. Either can get the premises sealed for up to a month after three defaults (section 48 penalty table, entries 15 and 17, pages Punjab 145–147).

Guests still want to know the amount before they pay, so ask your adviser how to tell them without handing over a pre-bill or temporary bill. For ways to shorten the wait between the bill request and payment, see speeding up the bill at the counter.

Sindh

• No early bills. SRB-POS doesn't allow prepayment bills or kutcha bills (SRB's FAQ).
• Fines. SRB's undated FAQ lists two penalties under section 43 of the Sindh Sales Tax on Services Act 2011 for an integrated restaurant that bypasses SRB-POS and doesn't report sales. Serial 2B: Rs 25,000 to Rs 100,000, and the premises can be sealed after three consecutive defaults.
• The second penalty. Serial 7B: up to Rs 100,000 or the tax involved, whichever is higher. On conviction by a special judge, 7B adds up to a year in prison, a fine of up to Rs 100,000, or both.

Air-conditioned restaurants (FBR)

Under FBR's rules, the Commissioner acts against sales recorded without an invoice carrying a QR code or FBR invoice number (rule 33T(2), SRO 428(I)/2024).

How to verify a PRA, SRB or KPRA receipt

• Punjab: enter the invoice number on PRA's e-IMS lookup, or scan the receipt's QR code (The Nation).
• Sindh: enter the SRB invoice ID and your mobile number on SRB's invoice verification page.
• Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: pick the restaurant and enter the invoice number, or scan the QR code, on KPRA's Verify Invoice page.

Tax questions to ask your POS vendor

1. Which authority are you integrated with: PRA, SRB, KPRA, FBR or several? Show me a live receipt and verify it on the authority's page. For FBR, show me proof that you're a licensed integrator.
2. Does the bill apply the cash or card rate by payment method? How do you handle a bill paid partly in cash and partly by card?
3. How do I give guests the total before they pay without issuing a pre-bill?
4. What happens in an outage or load-shedding? Punjab's e-IMS rules make you report a fault at once, pay for repairs and upload offline invoices within a week of the fix (rule 8, pages Punjab 444–445). FBR's rules require a failure report within 24 hours (rule 33S, SRO 428(I)/2024).
5. What does integration cost in total: integrator fee, monthly fee, per-terminal fee?
6. Can I export sales data to check against my bank's monthly tax certificate?

For published prices, see restaurant POS prices in Pakistan. For what a system must handle beyond billing, see choosing restaurant software in Pakistan.

Where MenuBeacon fits next to an integrated POS

In the Pakistan edition, Free is Rs 0 and Pro is Rs 5,000 a month, billed locally in rupees. Guests pay cash or at the counter; there are no online card payments.

• Free: guests order from table QR codes, orders reach a live kitchen board in the browser, and kitchen tickets print on an 80 mm thermal printer you provide (or one installed with the optional setup package). Waiter call and bill request are included; each request appears on your dashboard for staff to handle.
• Pro: adds staff PIN accounts for waiter orders, dine-in and takeaway.

Where it stops:

• No FBR, PRA or SRB connection. Where PRA, SRB or FBR rules require an integrated invoice, the guest's bill or receipt comes from your integrated billing system, and MenuBeacon handles the menu, ordering and kitchen. Its printouts are kitchen tickets and order summaries, never the guest's bill or receipt, so keep them in the kitchen.
• One tax rate per restaurant, so it can't charge 16% to cash payers and 8% to card payers.
• No POS connection. The Pakistan edition has no integrations, so it doesn't link to KPRA's RIMS either, and staff enter each order again in the integrated POS to bill it.
• If no integration rule applies to you, ask your tax adviser what your bill must show.

Plans are on MenuBeacon Pakistan: QR ordering and kitchen tickets in rupees.

Sources, checked on 12 October 2026

• Punjab law: The Punjab Sales Tax on Services Act 2012, 2026–27 edition (PRA; file dated 10 September 2026): section 2(17) (page Punjab 76); section 48 penalty table, entries 15, 17 and 25 (pages Punjab 145–147 and 151); Second Schedule, Part III, entry 4 (pages Punjab 217–218); Filing of Returns Rules 2012, rule 11(2) (page Punjab 281); Specific Provisions Rules 2012, rules 65–71 (pages Punjab 321–324); e-IMS Rules 2019, rules 3, 4, 6 and 8 (pages Punjab 442–445); Notifications PRA/Order.06/2012 (22 May 2013; page Punjab 464), PRA.32-24/2026/1313 (19 February 2026; pages Punjab 562–563) and PRA/Member Legal/816/26 (2 July 2026; pages Punjab 563–564).
• Punjab circular and rate report: PRA Circular No. 1 of 2026 (23 January 2026); Geo Fact Check (updated 16 July 2026).
• Punjab guidelines and enforcement (press): Dunya News (10 August 2026); ARY News (17 August 2026); The Nation (18 August 2026; also the receipt QR check) and ProPakistani (18 August 2026); The Lahore Times (5 October 2026); Business Recorder opinion (31 July 2026; also the reference to PRA's 24 July 2026 clarification).
• Sindh: SRB restaurant rates and SRB-POS FAQ, including section 43 serials 2B and 7B (both undated); SRB invoice verification (undated).
• Federal and Islamabad: SRO 428(I)/2024 (22 March 2024): the Schedule and rules 33B, 33R, 33S and 33T(2); FBR draft SRO 288(I)/2026 (18 February 2026); FBR POS legal provisions (undated); KPMG TaxNewsFlash (9 March 2026); KPMG Pakistan tax alert (undated; URL dated March 2026); Profit (2 July 2025).
• Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: KP Sales Tax on Services Act 2022 as updated by the Finance Act 2026 (KPRA; file dated 2 September 2026): section 53, serial 6, and Second Schedule, Part II, entry 2; KPRA RIMS documentation (undated); KPRA Verify Invoice (undated).
• Receipt checks: PRA e-IMS lookup (undated).

Try the Pakistan demo (no sign-up), start free with Pakistan selected, or ask about Pro or the setup package.