Services · Classification
Getting the heading and the value right before customs ever sees the file.
Shafiq Traders · Updated 13 September 2026
Classification fixes which heading a product sits in, and that heading decides the duty and the regulatory approvals that apply. Valuation fixes what that duty is charged on. Pakistan classifies to an 8-digit Pakistan Customs Tariff code, not the 6-digit international heading a lookup built for another country will give you, and a declared value can be checked against a standing valuation ruling rather than accepted as filed. Both are argued before the declaration goes in, not after.
Two questions, decided before filing
A Goods Declaration answers two questions before customs ever looks at it: what is this, and what is it worth. The first is classification, the heading in the tariff the goods actually belong to. The second is valuation, the figure that heading's duty is charged against. Get either one wrong and the query lands on the same file.
Neither question is answered by what the supplier's invoice calls the product. It is answered by what the product is, how it is built and what it does, checked against the wording of the tariff itself.
How an 8-digit PCT code is built
| Digits | What they fix |
|---|---|
| First two | The chapter — the broad class of goods |
| Next two | The heading within that chapter |
| Last four | The Pakistan Customs Tariff line — the specific item, and the line the duty and any regulatory condition actually attach to |
Why a 6-digit Indian HS code is the wrong answer here
A lookup tool built on Indian trade data will return a 6-digit HS heading, because that is as far as the international system goes before each country adds its own extension. India extends it one way. Pakistan extends it to eight digits, and the last two are where the actual duty rate, the regulatory approval and any concession are attached.
Two products that share the same 6-digit heading can sit on different 8-digit lines in Pakistan's own tariff, with different duty and different paperwork behind them. A classification copied from an Indian site has already stopped one step short of the part that matters here.
How a customs value is actually decided
| Order | Method | What it uses |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Transaction value | The price actually paid or payable for the goods, adjusted under the rules in section 25 |
| 2 | Identical goods | The transaction value of identical goods sold around the same time, at the same commercial level |
| 3 | Similar goods | The transaction value of goods that are not identical but are similar enough to compare |
| 4 | Deductive value | Working back from the price the goods, or similar goods, sell for once inside Pakistan |
| 5 | Computed value | Cost of production plus profit, where the manufacturer's own figures are available |
| 6 | Fallback | A value worked out by reasonable means consistent with the Act, when none of the above holds |
What a valuation ruling does to your declared value
Where declared values for a category of goods are running well below what customs is seeing elsewhere, the Directorate General of Customs Valuation can determine the value itself under section 25A, rather than leave every importer of that item to be assessed individually. That determination is a valuation ruling, and once issued it becomes the value your goods are assessed against, not a benchmark to be argued around at the counter.
There is one exception worth knowing. If the value on your invoice or in your declaration is higher than the ruling, the higher figure is what gets charged. A valuation ruling sets a floor under a declared value, not a ceiling over it.
If you think a value is wrong
A ruling is not the end of the argument. There is a route to challenge one, and it runs through two bodies, not one.
The ruling is issued
The Directorate General of Customs Valuation determines the value under section 25A, usually after representations that declared values for a category of goods are out of line with the market.
Review petition
A review petition can be filed before the Director-General of Valuation within thirty days of the determination, and is to be decided within sixty days of the petition being filed.
Appeal to the Tribunal
An order passed in that review can be appealed to the Customs Appellate Tribunal, heard by a special bench of one judicial member and one technical member.
A heading can usually be argued two ways, and the more favourable one is not always the one that survives a query. We will tell you which classification we think holds and which one is a stretch. If you want to file on the stretch anyway, that is your decision, and the consequence of it sits with you, not with this office.
Questions
What importers ask us about classification and value
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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