Guides · Import licence
There is no import licence. Here is what actually lets you import.
Shafiq Traders · Updated 13 September 2026
No such thing as a general import licence exists in Pakistan, and no department issues one. What lets a Goods Declaration be filed in your name is registration: a National Tax Number, a sales tax registration where your business needs one, and enrolment as a trader on the Pakistan Single Window. Those three, together, are what most people mean when they ask about a licence. Some specific goods need something more on top of that — a drug regulator's approval, a plant protection permit, a standards certificate — and that requirement comes from the Import Policy Order's Appendix B, not from any general licensing scheme. If your product isn't named there, registration is the whole requirement.
The question assumes something that isn't true
"How do I get an import licence in Pakistan" is a reasonable question to ask, because plenty of countries answer it with an actual licence. Pakistan does not. There is no general document, issued by any department, that authorises a company to import goods as a category of activity.
What exists instead is registration. A National Tax Number from FBR. A sales tax registration where the business needs one. Enrolment as a trader on the Pakistan Single Window. Once those three are in place, a Goods Declaration can be filed in your name, and that is what most people are actually asking how to get.
What you need, and where it comes from
| Requirement | What it is | Who issues it |
|---|---|---|
| NTN | National Tax Number — the basic identifier every registered taxpayer has | Federal Board of Revenue |
| STRN | Sales tax registration, where the business is required to have one | Federal Board of Revenue |
| PSW enrolment | Registration as a trader on the platform a declaration is actually filed through | Pakistan Single Window |
Registered, then represented
Registration is yours to hold, not something a clearing agent can substitute for you. The NTN, the STRN and the PSW enrolment sit against your own company, and the declaration is filed in your name. What an agent does from there is act on your file — classify it, value it, put it through — not stand in for your registration.
This is also where the WeBOC and PSW confusion causes real trouble. WeBOC is still the customs system doing the processing underneath. PSW is the interface a trader is actually enrolled and working through. The registration people are asking about when they say "import licence" is the PSW one, not a WeBOC account on its own.
Where a genuine authorisation still applies
The exceptions are real, and they are not about your company at all — they are about the specific product. The Import Policy Order's Appendix B names certain goods as importable only against a stated condition: a drug regulator's approval for some pharmaceutical inputs, a plant protection permit for agricultural material, a standards or type-approval document for some electrical and electronic goods.
None of that is a general import licence either. It is a product-specific requirement, decided by the PCT heading your goods sit under, and it sits on top of the registration above rather than replacing it.
Registration does not make every product simple, and we are not going to imply that it does. If your item needs a plant-quarantine permit, which is moving from the Department of Plant Protection to the National Agri-trade and Food Safety Authority through 2026, or an approval from a drug regulator, an NTN and a PSW enrolment do not substitute for it. We would rather tell you that while your order is still with the supplier than after the shipment has already reached the port.
Questions
What importers ask about licensing
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.