Import duty · Paper
What paper, board and A4 stock pay at classification, and where the weight on the invoice starts to matter.
Shafiq Traders · Updated 13 September 2026
Paper and board sit under PCT Chapter 48, and the customs duty across most of it runs 15% to 20% depending on the heading and, on several of them, the weight of the paper itself. Cut-size office paper — A4, letter, the sheets a copier or printer actually takes — has its own description in the tariff rather than a brand name: sheets weighing 40 to 150 grams per square metre with one side not exceeding 435mm and the other not exceeding 297mm, PCT heading 4802.5600, at 15% customs duty. Sales tax on the chapter runs at the standard 18% of assessed value, not a special basis. What decides the bracket on several paper and board lines is not the product description at all — it is the grammage. Kraft paper and testliner both step up several points once the paper crosses a stated weight per square metre, and that is a fact about the reel, not the invoice.
The description behind "A4 paper", and what sits either side of it
There is no PCT heading called A4 paper. What the tariff describes instead is uncoated paper of a kind used for writing or printing, weighing 40 to 150 grams per square metre, in sheets with one side not exceeding 435mm and the other not exceeding 297mm in the unfolded state — heading 4802.5600. That is the cut-size description that covers A4, and it sits inside a wider group of headings that also covers the same paper in rolls, in larger sheets, and above and below that weight band, each carrying its own eight-digit code.
Printing paper, poster paper, graph paper and bond paper each get their own sub-code when supplied in rolls rather than cut sheets, under the same 4802.55 series. Above 150 grams per square metre, the same chapter covers art paper, card board and art card. All of it is one product family on a shelf; it is several different declarations on a Goods Declaration.
Paper and board, by heading
| What's imported | PCT heading | Customs duty |
|---|---|---|
| Printing/writing paper, rolls, 40–150 g/m² | 4802.5510–4802.5590 | 15% |
| Cut-size sheets (A4/letter), 40–150 g/m² | 4802.5600 | 15% |
| Art paper, card board, art card, over 150 g/m² | 4802.5810–4802.5890 | 15% |
| Kraftliner, unbleached | 4804.1100 | 20% |
| Kraftliner, other | 4804.1900 | 15% |
| Sack kraft paper, unbleached | 4804.2100 | 5% |
| Testliner (recycled linerboard), 150 g/m² or less | 4805.2400 | 15% |
| Testliner, more than 150 g/m² | 4805.2500 | 20% |
| Corrugated paper and paperboard | 4808.1000 | 20% |
Duty and tax on A4 and cut-size printing paper
PCT heading 4802.5600 is the line that covers office and copier paper cut to size — the most common single classification on a stationery or printing-paper shipment.
- Customs duty15%on assessed value · Pakistan Customs Tariff FY2026-27, PCT heading 4802.5600
- Sales tax18%on assessed value · Sales Tax Act, 1990, section 3(1)
Checked 13 September 2026 against Federal Board of Revenue — Pakistan Customs Tariff FY2026-27. Rates move at the budget and by SRO in between, so confirm the current figure with us before you price a consignment on it.
Why the weight on the invoice is not a formality
Kraft paper and testliner are both taxed by weight bracket, not by name alone. Testliner at 150 grams per square metre or less carries one duty rate; cross that line and the same product moves to a materially higher one. Kraft paper and paperboard step up again between the band under 225 grams and the band at or above it. A shipment invoiced at one weight and tested heavier at the terminal does not stay in the cheaper bracket because the paperwork said so.
None of this touches the classification argument. A roll of kraftliner and a ream of art card are never going to be confused for each other. The dispute that actually comes up is narrower and duller than that: the grammage on the mill certificate against the grammage the terminal's own test shows, on a product where a few grams either side of the line changes what is owed.
If a kraft or testliner shipment tests heavier than the weight declared on the invoice, it is assessed in the bracket the paper actually falls in, not the one the paperwork was written for. We would rather raise that against our own client's shipment than let it go through and have the bracket challenged later, at a stage where reversing it costs far more than a conversation would have.
Paper and packaging importers we have cleared for
Paper travels through this register alongside the wider packaging trade — printers, stationers and packaging converters bringing in reels and reams by the container, not a single ream at a time.
Sardar Family Packages · Amin Paper Board Mills · Gold Paper & Board Mills · Prime Paper Mills · Rana Faisal Paper Mill · Top Mountain Printers
Questions
What paper importers ask us
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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.