Does customs duty on fabric depend on what it's made of?

Yes. Cotton woven fabric, man-made filament fabric and knitted fabric sit in different chapters of the tariff at different rates. The fibre composition by weight, verified against the invoice, decides which chapter applies before anything else does.

Why would the same fabric pay a different rate on two different shipments?

Under heading 54.07, grey or bleached man-made filament fabric pays 10% and dyed or printed fabric under the same heading pays 15%. If a mill imports both states across two shipments, the duty differs even though the underlying yarn is the same.

What happens if my invoice just says 'blended fabric'?

It gets questioned. A blend has to pass a specific composition test by weight to sit in the lower-duty cotton headings, and "blended" alone does not state that percentage. We ask for the fibre breakdown before the declaration goes in, not after an assessment query comes back.

Does fabric get any sales tax concession, the way solar panels do?

No. Fabric is charged sales tax at the standard rate under section 3(1) of the Sales Tax Act, 1990. There is no reduced entry for it in the Eighth Schedule the way there is for a handful of other goods.

Can you clear fabric alongside dyes and machinery in the same consignment?

Yes, and it is the normal pattern for a mill rather than the exception. Each line still classifies on its own facts — the fabric on composition and construction, the dyes on chemical identity, the machinery on its own schedule.

Do you clear fabric at Lahore dry port as well as Karachi?

Yes. Our Lahore office has worked outside the Mughalpura dry port since 1987, and the Karachi office covers the seaports and the airport. A mill shipping through either is dealt with by the same team.

Import duty · Fabric

The duty on a fabric shipment depends on what it's woven from, not what the invoice calls it.

Q: Is there a regulatory duty on fabric on top of customs duty?

On some man-made fabric headings, yes — 54.07 and the synthetic and artificial staple-fibre headings among them. Cotton woven fabric and knitted fabric do not currently carry one under the notification in force. That list is revised most budgets, so we confirm it fresh for each shipment.

Shafiq Traders · Updated 13 September 2026

Fabric is not one classification. Cotton woven fabric sits in one chapter of the tariff, man-made filament fabric in another, man-made staple-fibre fabric in a third, and knitted or crocheted fabric in a fourth — and inside some of those chapters, the rate itself changes again once the cloth is dyed or printed rather than left grey. The table below has the current position for each. What decides which row applies is composition by weight and construction, verified against the description on the invoice, not the name a supplier gives the roll.

One word, four chapters

Nobody classifies "fabric." Customs classifies a woven fabric of cotton, or a woven fabric of synthetic filament yarn, or a knitted fabric, and each of those lives in its own chapter of the tariff with its own rate. Composition by weight decides the chapter. Whether the cloth is woven or knitted decides the heading within it.

Inside some of those headings the rate moves a second time, depending on how far the fabric has been processed. A grey roll straight off the loom and the same roll after dyeing can sit in the same heading and still carry different duty. That distinction is not a technicality — it is the first thing we check against an invoice that simply says "fabric."

What decides the heading

Drawn from the Pakistan Customs Tariff FY 2026-27. Checked September 2026.
Fibre and construction	PCT chapter	What fixes the rate inside it
Woven fabric of cotton, 85% or more cotton by weight	52.08 – 52.09	Weight per square metre; the rate does not move with bleaching, dyeing or printing
Woven fabric of cotton mixed mainly with man-made fibres	52.10 – 52.11	Same composition test as above, cotton just under half the blend
Woven cotton fabric outside that composition band	52.12	Falls out of 52.08–52.11 on the fibre test alone
Woven fabric of synthetic filament yarn	54.07	Grey or bleached versus dyed, printed or yarn-dyed — the same heading, a different rate
Knitted or crocheted fabric	60.02 – 60.06	Construction (knitted, not woven) rather than processing stage

Customs duty and sales tax on fabric

Representative headings for the fabric this office clears most often. A single invoice line can move between two of these rows depending on how the goods are actually finished, not how they are described.

Cotton woven fabric, 85% or more cotton10%on assessed value · Pakistan Customs Tariff, PCT headings 5208 and 5209
Cotton woven fabric outside that composition band15%on assessed value · Pakistan Customs Tariff, PCT heading 52.12
Man-made filament woven fabric, grey or bleached10%on assessed value · Pakistan Customs Tariff, PCT heading 5407.1000 / 5407.7100
Man-made filament woven fabric, dyed, printed or yarn-dyed15%on assessed value · Pakistan Customs Tariff, PCT heading 5407.7200 and related entries
Knitted or crocheted fabric10%on assessed value · Pakistan Customs Tariff, PCT headings 60.02 to 60.06
Sales tax18%on value inclusive of customs duty · Sales Tax Act, 1990, section 3(1) — the standard rate; fabric carries no reduced entry

Checked 13 September 2026 against Federal Board of Revenue — Pakistan Customs Tariff FY 2026-27. Rates move at the budget and by SRO in between, so confirm the current figure with us before you price a consignment on it.

The same roll, before and after the dye vat

Man-made filament fabric under heading 54.07 is the clearest case. Grey and bleached cloth carries the lower rate. The identical fabric, once dyed, printed, or woven from yarn of different colours, moves to the higher one under the same heading. An invoice that describes the goods as simply "polyester fabric" without saying which state they are in is not a complete description — it is an invitation to a query at assessment.

Cotton fabric does not work quite the same way. Bleaching, dyeing and printing do not move the rate inside 52.08 to 52.11 — the composition test is what matters there, and a blend that fails it drops into 52.12 at a higher rate regardless of finish. Two mills importing what looks like the same cloth can pay different duty because one blend passes a composition threshold the other misses by a few points of fibre weight.

A regulatory duty also sits on top of customs duty for some man-made fabric headings — 54.07 and the synthetic and artificial staple-fibre headings in 55.09 to 55.16 among them. Cotton woven fabric and knitted fabric do not currently carry one. That list is set by a separate notification revised at most budgets, and we check the one in force before quoting a landed cost rather than carry forward what applied last year.

Textile companies we have cleared fabric for

Fabric moves through this office alongside yarn, dyes and machinery for the same mills — some import all four, some only one.

Comfort Knitwears · H. Sheikh Noor-ud-Din & Sons · Z-KAP (Zulfiqar Knitting & Processing Mills) · Fairdeal Textiles · Green Hill Corporation · Stitches · Warisha Industries · Aadam Textile · Al Rehman Textile Industries · Al-Hamza Textile · Luminara Textiles · Unifab Exports · Vihaana Textiles · Bilal Qayyum Embroidery · Pak Thread Collection · Textile Sage

A blend declared as "65/35 polyester-cotton" is a claim about composition, not a fact, until a lab test backs it. If we do not think the declared percentage will hold up against a fibre-content test at the terminal, we would rather say so before the declaration goes in than defend a number neither of us can support afterward.

Questions

What fabric 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.

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