Import duty · Used clothing
The lunda trade is assessed by the kilogram, not the invoice, and it is treated as the commercial import it is.
Shafiq Traders · Updated 13 September 2026
Worn clothing comes in under PCT heading 63.09, split at the eight-digit level into worn clothing, worn shoes and other worn articles. The current duty and sales tax positions are in the table below. What actually governs this trade is not the invoice — customs has long assessed worn clothing against a value fixed per kilogram by country of origin, revised by valuation ruling, because a bale of sorted secondhand garments does not carry a meaningful per-piece price the way a container of new stock does. This is a large, ordinary commercial trade with its own file, not a grey-market curiosity, and we clear it the same way we clear any other bulk consignment.
A bale, not a boutique
The buyers on the other end of this trade are wholesalers running a lunda market stall or a container's worth of onward resale, not a single household bringing in a suitcase. The file behind a bale shipment looks like the file behind any other bulk commercial import: a bill of lading, a packing list by weight, a Goods Declaration on the Pakistan Single Window, and an assessment that follows a specific rule for this specific heading.
That rule is weight, not invoice value. A bale of sorted secondhand clothing has a price that reflects grade and sorting effort far more than it reflects any single garment inside it, so customs values this heading against a benchmark fixed per kilogram by country of origin, set out in a valuation ruling and revised periodically — the same mechanism used across a number of secondhand goods, not something invented for this trade alone.
The three lines this heading splits into
| What's declared | Eight-digit PCT code | What usually holds the file up |
|---|---|---|
| Worn clothing | 6309.1010 | A gross weight at the terminal that runs heavier than the packing list |
| Worn shoes | 6309.1020 | Mixed footwear and clothing bales declared under one line only |
| Other worn articles | 6309.1090 | Goods that do not sit cleanly in either of the other two lines |
Duty and sales tax on worn clothing
All three lines under 63.09 carry the same rates. What most commercial imports also pay, and this one does not, is set out below the table.
- Customs duty5%on assessed value · Pakistan Customs Tariff, PCT heading 63.09 (6309.1010, 6309.1020, 6309.1090)
- Sales tax5%on value inclusive of customs duty · Eighth Schedule to the Sales Tax Act, 1990, Table-1, serial 23 — a reduced rate against the 18% standard
- Value addition tax at importNot chargedon unlike most other commercial imports · Sales Tax Act, 1990, Twelfth Schedule, exclusion (vi), which names PCT heading 6309.0000 directly
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.
What the invoice doesn't decide
For most goods, a declared value stands unless customs can show it does not reflect the transaction. Worn clothing has generally been treated differently: because a sorted bale has no retail comparator, valuation has for years run on a fallback method under the Customs Act, fixing a benchmark per kilogram that varies by the exporting country rather than by what any importer's invoice states. A ruling in one country's favour a decade ago does not tell you what applies to a shipment landing this month — these benchmarks are revised, and we check the ruling actually in force before we tell a client what a container will cost, rather than quote a figure that was correct two revisions ago.
A regulatory duty has also applied to this heading in past budgets, on top of customs duty and sales tax. Whether it still does, and at what rate, is set by a notification reviewed most years — we confirm the one currently in force rather than carry forward last year's number, for exactly the reason a stale rate is worse than no rate at all.
The other route into the country
Duty-free entry for worn clothing does exist in the tariff, but it is not a route this trade uses. A separate provision lets the Abdul Sattar Edhi Foundation and the Bilquis Edhi Foundation bring in worn clothing free of duty, by name, for the charity's own distribution, subject to a certificate from the foundation on each consignment. A commercial bale shipment for resale is a different classification with a different file, and treating the two as interchangeable is a mistake we would flag before it became a declaration.
A weight at the terminal that comes in heavier than the packing list is not unusual with baled goods, and it is not something we can argue away by pointing at the invoice — this heading is assessed on weight, not on declared value. We tell a client what a terminal reweigh is likely to show before it shows it, rather than after the query comes back.
Questions
What used clothing 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.