What PCT heading covers lithium batteries?

It depends on the chemistry. Lithium iron phosphate packs carry their own line under PCT 8506.5000. Other lithium-ion chemistries fall under PCT 8507.6000, the same heading used for lithium-ion cells generally. Get this wrong on the invoice and the file is built against the wrong line from the start.

Do lithium batteries get a lower rate because they're for solar storage?

Not automatically. The Fifth Schedule concession on lithium-ion cells applies to registered local battery manufacturers importing cells as raw material, not to a finished pack bought in for resale or installation. The LiFePO4-specific line is the one general concession we can point to — see the table above.

What does the IP rating on my battery have to do with customs?

It is the category the current valuation ruling values your shipment against, on a per-kilogram or per-kilowatt basis, whichever is higher. Get the rating wrong on the paperwork and the assessment can land in a different bracket than you expected.

Are batteries built into laptops or phones valued the same way?

No. The ruling excludes lithium-ion batteries meant for mobile phones, laptops, tablets and similar devices by name. If your shipment is genuinely one of those, say so clearly on the invoice — it keeps the file out of a ruling that was never meant to cover it.

Does a lithium battery need an AEDB or PSQCA certificate?

We have not found batteries named in the same standards order that covers solar panels, inverters and standalone solar kits. If your battery ships as part of a packaged solar home system rather than on its own, tell us — that changes which checklist applies.

Can batteries clear in the same shipment as panels and inverters?

Yes, and they often do. Each item still classifies and values on its own terms inside the one Goods Declaration, which is why a mixed solar container is more work than its container count suggests.

Why does the invoice description of the battery matter so much?

Because the description, not the box it ships in, is what tells an appraiser which PCT heading and which valuation ruling apply. A vague description invites a query where a specific one would not.

Import duty · Batteries

What it costs to bring a lithium battery into Pakistan, and why it isn't one number.

Shafiq Traders · Updated 13 September 2026

Lithium batteries do not travel under one PCT heading in Pakistan. A lithium iron phosphate pack and a lithium-ion pack of another chemistry are classified, and valued, differently, and a battery built into a laptop or a phone is excluded outright from the ruling that governs the rest. The table below has the current position for each. What decides which bracket a shipment lands in is the chemistry and the ingress-protection rating printed on the pack, not the invoice price.

The same chapter, two different batteries

Panels and inverters each sit under one PCT heading. Lithium batteries do not. A pack built on lithium iron phosphate chemistry — the kind most solar storage and UPS banks use now — carries its own line in the Fifth Schedule to the Customs Act, separate from the general heading for lithium-ion batteries. Get the chemistry wrong on the invoice and you have filed against the wrong line before anything else goes wrong.

This page covers standalone battery imports: packs and banks brought in on their own account, not the battery built into a phone or a laptop, and not the cells a manufacturer imports to assemble batteries locally under its own concession. Those are different files with different rules.

Which battery, which heading

Fifth Schedule to the Customs Act, 1969, Part-III, and Valuation Ruling No. 1964/2025. Checked September 2026.
What's in the shipment	PCT heading	Does the storage-battery valuation ruling apply
Lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) packs — the common solar storage and UPS chemistry	8506.5000	No — this chemistry carries its own Fifth Schedule duty line instead (see below)
Lithium-ion packs of other chemistries, for solar or UPS storage	8507.6000	Yes — valued under the current lithium-ion battery ruling, by ingress-protection rating
Lithium-ion cells or packs built for mobile phones, laptops, tablets and similar devices	8507.6000	No — the ruling excludes these devices by name, whatever the pack's rating

Duty and sales tax on lithium batteries

Two headings, two positions. We could not find a published concessionary customs duty rate for finished lithium-ion battery packs under PCT 8507.6000 — the Fifth Schedule concession on that heading covers cells imported by registered local battery manufacturers, not finished packs bought in for resale or installation, so that import sits on the standard tariff rather than a rate we can publish here with confidence. Confirm the current figure for your specific pack before you price a job on it.

Customs duty — lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4)8%on assessed value, PCT 8506.5000 · Fifth Schedule to the Customs Act, 1969, Part-III, serial 110
Sales tax18%on value inclusive of customs duty · Section 3(1), Sales Tax Act, 1990 — the standard rate; we found no Sixth or Eighth Schedule entry for either battery heading

Checked 13 September 2026 against Federal Board of Revenue — Fifth Schedule to the Customs Act, 1969. Rates move at the budget and by SRO in between, so confirm the current figure with us before you price a consignment on it.

What customs assesses the value on

For lithium-ion batteries under PCT 8507.6000, customs values by ingress-protection rating, on a per-kilogram or per-kilowatt basis, whichever produces the higher figure. The ruling states plainly that these values do not apply to lithium-ion batteries meant for mobile phones, laptops, tablets and similar devices.

IP-20US$7 per kg, or US$70 per kW, whichever is higheron C&F, PCT 8507.6000 · Valuation Ruling No. 1964 of 2025, dated 29 January 2025
IP-21US$8 per kg, or US$80 per kW, whichever is higheron C&F, PCT 8507.6000 · Valuation Ruling No. 1964 of 2025, dated 29 January 2025
IP-65US$9 per kg, or US$90 per kW, whichever is higheron C&F, PCT 8507.6000 · Valuation Ruling No. 1964 of 2025, dated 29 January 2025

Checked 13 September 2026 against Directorate General of Customs Valuation — Valuation Ruling No. 1964/2025 (lithium ion battery). Rates move at the budget and by SRO in between, so confirm the current figure with us before you price a consignment on it.

Why the rating on the box is not a formality

The IP number on a battery's data sheet says how well it is sealed against dust and water — IP-65 is a genuinely outdoor-rated enclosure, IP-20 is not. Customs uses that same number to decide which of the three brackets your shipment is valued against, and it takes the higher of the per-kilogram or per-kilowatt figure rather than whichever is more convenient to the importer. A pack under-declared on weight does not escape the per-kilowatt side of that comparison.

The ruling was written because of under-invoicing the directorate had already seen: imports coming in below the actual market price of the cells inside them. That history is worth knowing, because it means an appraiser questioning a low value on a battery shipment is not being difficult for its own sake — it is the specific problem this ruling exists to catch.

A battery pack for a solar bank and one built into a laptop sit in the same PCT chapter, but customs values them on entirely different terms — one against a per-kilogram benchmark, the other excluded from that ruling altogether. We describe a shipment on the invoice as what it actually is and what it is actually for. Declaring a storage pack as something else to sit outside the ruling is not a service we offer, and an agent who tells you he can manage that outcome is asking you to sign a declaration he should not be filing.

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