Which duties and taxes are charged when I import goods into Pakistan, for example from China?

What does the law say?

Three federal laws each add their own charge at the moment goods are cleared through customs. Customs collects all of them on the same goods declaration, but each one is a separate levy with its own base.

1. Customs duty. Section 18(1) of the Customs Act, 1969 charges customs duty on goods imported into Pakistan “at such rates as are prescribed in the First Schedule”. That First Schedule is the customs tariff. It is not in this corpus, so this page cannot tell you the duty rate for any product.
2. Regulatory duty and additional customs duty. Section 18(3) lets the Federal Government levy a regulatory duty by notification, at a rate not exceeding 100% of the value of the goods. Section 18(5) lets it levy an additional customs duty on goods specified in the First Schedule, at a rate not exceeding 35% of their value. Both are “in addition to” ordinary customs duty. The notifications that set the actual rates are outside this corpus.
3. Sales tax. Section 3(1)(b) of the Sales Tax Act, 1990 charges sales tax at 18% of the value of goods imported into Pakistan, and section 3(3)(b) puts the liability on the person importing them.
4. Value addition tax. Section 7A(2) and the Twelfth Schedule of the Sales Tax Act add a further 3% ad valorem on imported goods, with a list of exclusions such as raw materials a manufacturer imports for its own consumption.
5. Advance income tax. Section 148 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 requires the Collector of Customs to collect advance tax from every importer at the rate in Part II of the First Schedule to the Ordinance.

What value is each charge worked out on?

Each tax builds on the one before it, which is why the total is higher than the rates suggest on their own.

Charge	Base in the law
Customs duty, regulatory duty, additional customs duty	Customs value under section 25 of the Customs Act
Sales tax (18%) and value addition tax (3%)	Section 2(46)(d) of the Sales Tax Act: the value under section 25 of the Customs Act, including the customs duties and federal excise duty levied on the goods
Section 148 income tax	Section 148(9)(b): the customs value “increased by the custom-duty, federal excise duty and sales tax” payable on the import

Section 25(1) of the Customs Act sets the customs value as the transaction value, the price actually paid or payable for the goods when sold for export to Pakistan. Section 25(2)(a) adds, where not already in the price, the cost of transport to the port or airport, loading, unloading and handling charges, and insurance. So a CIF-type value, not the bare factory price in China, is the starting point.

Worked example (illustrative figures)

Bilal runs a small trading business in Faisalabad and imports a consignment of household goods from China for resale. Assume the goods are not listed in Part I or Part II of the Twelfth Schedule to the Income Tax Ordinance (so they fall in Part III), are not in the Third Schedule of the Sales Tax Act, and carry no exemption. The customs duty figure below is an invented amount, because the tariff is not in this corpus.

1. Price paid to the supplier: Rs. 1,800,000. Freight to Karachi: Rs. 150,000. Insurance: Rs. 50,000. Customs value under section 25: Rs. 2,000,000.
2. Customs duty, regulatory duty and additional customs duty assessed on the declaration, together: Rs. 400,000 (illustrative amount).
3. Value for sales tax: Rs. 2,000,000 + Rs. 400,000 = Rs. 2,400,000.
4. Sales tax at 18%: Rs. 2,400,000 x 18% = Rs. 432,000.
5. Value addition tax at 3%: Rs. 2,400,000 x 3% = Rs. 72,000. This example applies the 3% to the same value as ordinary sales tax; the Twelfth Schedule states the rate only as “3% ad valorem”.
6. Value for section 148: Rs. 2,400,000 + Rs. 432,000 = Rs. 2,832,000.
7. Section 148 at the commercial importer rate for Part III goods, 6%: Rs. 2,832,000 x 6% = Rs. 169,920.

Total collected at import: Rs. 400,000 + Rs. 432,000 + Rs. 72,000 + Rs. 169,920 = Rs. 1,073,920, on goods that cost Rs. 2,000,000 landed.

Section 148(9)(b) speaks of “sales tax, if any, payable in respect of the import” without saying whether the 3% value addition tax is part of that figure. If it is, step 6 becomes Rs. 2,904,000 and step 7 becomes Rs. 174,240, a difference of Rs. 4,320. The Ordinance does not settle this point in section 148.

What if I am not on the Active Taxpayers List?

Rule 1 of the Tenth Schedule to the Ordinance raises the rate of any tax collected from a person not on the active taxpayers’ list by 100%. Section 148 is not among the exclusions in rule 10, so Bilal’s 6% would become 12%, or Rs. 339,840 in the example above. The detail is on the page about section 148 rates.

What if I am a manufacturer importing raw material?

The picture changes in two places. The value addition tax does not apply to raw materials and intermediary goods a manufacturer imports for in-house consumption, under clause (2)(i) of the Twelfth Schedule to the Sales Tax Act. And the section 148 rate for a non-commercial importer is lower than the commercial importer rate in Part II of the First Schedule.

Common mistakes

• Working out sales tax on the invoice price. Section 2(46)(d) adds customs duties to the customs value first.
• Assuming the only cost is “duty”. Sales tax, the value addition tax and section 148 income tax are collected at the same time and can together exceed the customs duty.
• Treating the section 148 figure as the final income tax bill. It is income tax on the importer’s income, not a customs charge. For most importers section 148(7) makes it a minimum tax on the income from the imports; for an industrial undertaking importing for its own use it is generally advance tax.
• Forgetting Third Schedule goods. Branded consumer goods in that Schedule are taxed on printed retail price, not customs value.

What to check in the official text

Read the First Schedule to the Customs Act for the duty rate on your PCT heading, and any current regulatory duty or additional customs duty notifications, none of which are in this corpus. Read section 3 and the Twelfth Schedule of the Sales Tax Act for sales tax and the value addition tax exclusions, and section 148 with Part II of the First Schedule and the Twelfth Schedule of the Income Tax Ordinance for the advance tax rate. The Customs Act text on this site is amended to 30 June 2025; the other two laws are amended to 30 June 2026.