FBR eases sales tax registration for businesses

Dawn reported that the Federal Board of Revenue has introduced steps to simplify sales tax registration, mainly for businesses judged to be low risk. Under the revised system, applications submitted through the IRIS portal will go through risk-based screening. The changes were issued via Sales Tax General Order No. 20 of 2026 on Monday.

Low-risk applicants are to be processed within three working days if their documents are complete. Field offices have also been told not to request extra papers unless the law requires them or the risk system flags a case. Where an application is incomplete, applicants must be told within seven days exactly what is missing and how much time they have to fix it.

The FBR also asked sectoral associations under FPCCI to issue pre-registration certificates for their manufacturing members, which will be sent electronically to local registration offices. The board said these certificates only speed up verification and do not grant exemptions, and associations will be held responsible for false information. High-risk applications will still face stricter checks, and low-risk registrations may be reviewed later if irregularities emerge.