Guides · Charges
A clearance is several payments, not one fee.
Shafiq Traders · Updated 13 September 2026
A clearance is not one bill. It is duty and sales tax paid to FBR, a delivery order fee to the shipping line, terminal handling and wharfage at the port, port rent for every day the container sits before it clears, transport to your gate, and the agent's own fee for running the file. Duty and port charges are usually the largest numbers on the page. The agent's fee is usually the smallest, and the one every importer asks about first.
Nine charges, not one
Ask what a clearance costs and most people mean one number: what the agent charges. That is on the file, but it is one line among several, and usually the smallest one.
Before it, there is freight and a delivery order to the shipping line. Alongside it, there is wharfage and terminal handling to whoever runs the berth. Underneath all of it, there is duty and sales tax to FBR, assessed on the goods themselves. Every one of those goes to somebody other than the agent.
What a clearance is made of
| Charge | Paid to | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Ocean freight and the bill of lading | The shipping line | Carrying the container and issuing title to it |
| Delivery order | The shipping line | Releasing the box to be taken off the vessel in your name |
| Terminal handling | The terminal operator | Lifting the container off the ship and onto the yard |
| Wharfage | The port authority | Bringing cargo across the wharf |
| Port rent or storage | The port authority or the terminal | Every day the container sits on port land before it clears |
| Duty, sales tax and other levies | FBR, through a bank challan | Assessed on the goods, not on the act of clearing them |
| Examination or scanning | The terminal operator | Only where the consignment is opened or scanned |
| Transport to your gate | The transporter we book | Moving the released container to your address |
| This office's fee | Shafiq Traders | Filing the declaration, standing at the terminal, running the file |
Wharfage and port rent, set by Karachi Port Trust
Wharfage is charged once, for using the wharf. Port rent is charged by the day, for leaving the container on port land afterward. Karachi Port Trust revised both in 2023, and built an annual escalation into the same notification.
- Wharfage on an FCL import containerRs 110 per footon charged once, per container, on import · KPT Scale of Rates, Section 4, Clause 0402
- Wharfage on an empty containerRs 55 per footon charged once, per container · KPT Scale of Rates, Section 4, Clause 0402
- Port rent on an import container, day 1 to 15Rs 35 per foot per dayon from the date of discharge · KPT Scale of Rates, Section 4, Clause 0406
- Port rent on an import container, day 16 to 40Rs 70 per foot per dayon from the date of discharge · KPT Scale of Rates, Section 4, Clause 0406
- Port rent on an import container, after day 40Rs 100 per foot per dayon until the container is cleared · KPT Scale of Rates, Section 4, Clause 0406
- Annual escalation5%on the rates above, each year · written into the same notification
Checked 13 September 2026 against Karachi Port Trust — Scale of Rates, SRO 522(I)/2023. Rates move at the budget and by SRO in between, so confirm the current figure with us before you price a consignment on it.
Terminal handling, set by whoever runs the terminal
Karachi Port and Port Qasim both work through container terminals run by private operators, not by the port authority, and each publishes its own tariff. Qasim International Container Terminal, run by DP World at Port Qasim, is one of them.
- Landing charge, general cargo container, 20ft importRs 10,150on charged once, per container, at discharge · QICT General Cargo Tariff, effective January 2022
- Landing charge, general cargo container, 40ft importRs 13,850on charged once, per container, at discharge · QICT General Cargo Tariff, effective January 2022
- Data processing chargeRs 100on per container, import or export · QICT General Cargo Tariff, effective January 2022
- System processing chargeRs 350on per container, import or export · QICT General Cargo Tariff, effective January 2022
Checked 13 September 2026 against Qasim International Container Terminal — General Cargo Tariff (DP World). Rates move at the budget and by SRO in between, so confirm the current figure with us before you price a consignment on it.
Documentation and challans are charges too
A terminal charges separately for the paperwork side of a container: a data processing fee, a system processing fee, a bank services charge against the invoice. None of them are large next to duty or port rent, but they are on every file, on every container, and they are real.
Duty and sales tax are worked out against the assessed value, not invoiced as a separate item by anyone. We prepare the challan, put the payment through at the bank, and the receipt comes back with the file. That part of the cost is set by the assessment, not by us.
On most files we run, duty and sales tax are the largest number, and port and terminal charges are the second largest, because they run by the day and by the foot. What this office charges for the file is usually the smallest line on it, and it is the one people ask about before any other. That is fair — it is the one figure nobody else publishes — but it is worth knowing it is not where the money in a clearance actually goes.
Questions
What importers ask about the cost
Contact
Tell us what is coming.
Give us the product, the port and roughly when the vessel is due, and we will tell you what the clearance involves and what it will cost.