Guides · First import
Four things have to be true before you place the order, not after it ships.
Shafiq Traders · Updated 14 September 2026
Before a first container, a business needs four things in place, not in progress: an NTN and, where the goods require it, an STRN from FBR; enrolment as a Trader on the Pakistan Single Window, which is the registration that actually lets a declaration be filed in your name; a supplier who can produce a commercial invoice, packing list and bill of lading that agree with each other; and a landed cost worked out from more than the invoice price, because duty, sales tax, port charges and clearing charges all sit on top of it. None of this is a general import licence — Pakistan does not issue one — and none of it can be assembled after the goods are already on the water.
The paperwork race starts before the ship does
A first-time importer usually finds out what was missing at the worst possible point: when the goods have landed and a declaration cannot be filed cleanly against them. Every one of the four things below can be sorted out while the order is still with the supplier, at no cost beyond the time it takes, and every one of them is expensive to discover late.
None of this replaces a clearing agent's work once the container is moving. It is what has to exist before that work can start — your own registration, your supplier's documents, and an honest number for what the shipment will actually cost you once it is on the ground.
What to have in place before you order
In roughly this order, because each one depends on the one before it.
NTN, and an STRN where your goods need one
Both come from FBR, against your own company. Nothing downstream — PSW enrolment, a declaration, a supplier's invoice addressed to the right entity — works without this in place first.
Enrolment as a Trader on the Pakistan Single Window
A separate registration from the NTN itself, and the one that actually lets a Goods Declaration be filed in your name. This is what most people mean when they ask about an import licence, and there is no such licence beyond it.
A supplier who can produce a correct set of documents
A commercial invoice, a packing list, and a bill of lading that all describe the same goods, in the same quantities, under the same names. A supplier who quotes well but cannot produce a clean set of these is a bigger risk than one that costs more.
A landed cost built from more than the invoice price
Customs duty and sales tax are assessed on a customs value that already includes freight and insurance to the port, not the invoice price alone. Add port and terminal charges, inland transport and clearing charges on top before you price against it.
What actually sits on top of the invoice price
| Line | What adds to it |
|---|---|
| Customs value | The invoice price, plus the cost of transport, loading and handling to the port, plus the cost of insurance where a policy exists |
| Duty and sales tax | Assessed on that customs value, not on the invoice price alone |
| Port and terminal charges | Charged by the port or terminal handling the consignment, separately from customs itself |
| Inland transport | From the port to your own premises, arranged through a carrier once the goods are cleared |
| Clearing charges | What a clearing agent charges for the filing and the file, separate from all of the above |
Where a first shipment usually goes wrong
Almost never at the port. It goes wrong earlier, in a mismatch nobody checked before the goods sailed: an invoice made out to a trading name rather than the registered company on the NTN, a packing list with a different quantity than the invoice, or a supplier who cannot produce a bill of lading that agrees with either. Every one of those is a document problem, not a customs problem, and every one of them was fixable before the container left the loading port.
The other place it goes wrong is the number a first-time importer has in their head before the goods arrive. An invoice price is not a landed cost, and a business that has priced its first order against the invoice alone finds the gap at exactly the point it can no longer be negotiated away.
Getting your NTN and STRN registered, and staying on the Active Taxpayer List once you have them, is not customs work, and we are not the office that does it. That sits with FBR and your own tax filing. A company that is off the Active Taxpayer List finds out from a higher assessment on its own declaration, not from us catching it beforehand — so settle that position while the order is still with the supplier, not after the container is booked.
Questions
What first-time importers ask us
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.