Guides · Duty drawback
Drawback is claimed at export, and paid after the ship sails.
Shafiq Traders · Updated 13 September 2026
Duty drawback repays customs duty already paid on an imported input, once that input leaves Pakistan again, either re-exported largely as it arrived or built into something manufactured here for export. The claim has to be made and established at the time of export, not afterward, and the law does not allow payment until the vessel or conveyance carrying the goods has actually left Pakistan. Get either of those timings wrong and there is no claim to revive later.
Two kinds of drawback, not one
Chapter VI of the Customs Act covers two different situations under the same word. Section 35 is straight re-export: goods that were imported, had duty paid on them, and are now going back out largely unchanged. Section 37 is manufacturing drawback: imported goods used as an input in something manufactured in Pakistan and then exported, where the Board can direct that drawback be allowed on the imported input itself.
The two are assessed differently and documented differently. A re-export claim rests on showing the goods leaving are the same goods that came in. A manufacturing claim rests on showing how much of a dutiable import went into what actually left the country.
What has to be true before a claim can be made
| Condition | What it means | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Goods must be in the export manifest | Nothing left off the manifest can carry a drawback claim, whatever the reason it was left off | Section 39(a) |
| The claim must clear the minimum threshold | A claim below the minimum set for a single shipment is not entertained at all | Section 39(b) |
| The claim must be made and established at the time of export | Not applied for afterward, and not left to be reconstructed once the goods are gone | Section 39(c) |
| For re-export, the goods must be identified as the same goods imported | To an officer not below Assistant Collector, and entered for export within two years of import, extendable to three by the Collector | Section 35 |
How a claim actually moves
The sequence matters more than the paperwork inside it. Get the order wrong and the claim does not exist to be corrected later.
Goods entered for export
The goods declaration for export is delivered, and the goods appear on the export manifest. A claim cannot attach to a shipment that is not on it.
Claim made and established at export
The drawback claim is filed and supported at the time of export itself, not raised afterward once the shipment has already gone.
Declaration by the claimant
The exporter, or an authorised agent, signs a declaration that the goods were actually exported, have not been relanded, and are not intended to be.
Payment withheld until departure
No payment is made until the vessel has put out to sea, or the other conveyance has left Pakistan. An approved claim does not mean an immediate payment.
Processed at the exporting collectorate
At Karachi this runs through the Model Customs Collectorate of Exports, on the electronic duty drawback filing and payment system rather than a paper claim.
The one figure the Act fixes directly
Most of Chapter VI is procedure rather than a rate, because a manufacturing drawback rate is set separately by notification for the goods concerned. One threshold is fixed in the Act itself.
- Minimum drawback claim, per shipmentMore than Rs 100on a claim at or below this figure is not entertained · Section 39(b)
Checked 13 September 2026 against Federal Board of Revenue — Customs Act, 1969, section 39. 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 claims get rejected
The common failure is timing, not arithmetic. A claim assembled after the goods have already left, when section 39(c) requires it established at the time of export, does not get a second chance because the numbers were right. The same goes for goods that were never entered on the export manifest in the first place: there is no drawback claim to attach to a shipment the manifest does not show.
The other common failure is claiming on an input that was never dutiable to begin with. If the imported material came in duty-free, under a manufacturing bond or an existing export scheme, there is no customs duty sitting in it to repay. Filing a drawback claim on it is not an error worth correcting; it is a claim that was never going to exist.
Drawback is not compensation for exporting. It only exists where duty was actually paid on the imported input and the claim is entered correctly at the time of shipment. If your inputs came in duty-free under a bond or an export scheme already, there is no duty in them to draw back, and we will tell you that before a claim goes in, not after it is refused.
Questions
What exporters ask us about drawback
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.