Pakistan Customs Now Values Imported Coal at the Argus Price Plus Freight

Short answer: Pakistan Customs will now value imported coal at the Argus coal price on the letter of credit date plus the actual freight paid, under Publication Valuation Ruling No. 70/2026. The ruling is dated 12 October 2026 and was posted on FBR's customs valuation page on 19 October 2026. It replaces a fixed value set by the Quetta valuation office in September 2023.

We downloaded the ruling and five others posted the same day from FBR's valuation page on 20 October 2026. The coal ruling is the one most importers will feel. Cement plants, power producers, brick kilns and factories that burn coal in boilers all pay duty on it, and duty is worked out on the customs value.

Customs now uses the Argus price plus actual freight for coal

The new customs value for coal is the Argus price plus actual freight, in US dollars a ton on a cost and freight basis. It covers coal under PCT codes 2701.1200 and 2701.1900 from all origins. The Argus price may be taken from the letter of credit date.

A letter of credit, or L/C, is the bank promise an importer opens to pay the foreign seller. Its date is usually known well before the ship arrives. So an importer can now work out the customs value of a cargo early, instead of waiting to see what figure Customs applies at the port.

Argus is a price index named in the ruling. It publishes coal prices that move with the world market. Customs says it compared those prices with Pakistan's actual import data for the last 90 days before deciding to use them.

The old 2023 coal value from Quetta is gone

PVR 70/2026 supersedes Valuation Advice No. 01/2023 of 12 September 2023, issued by the Directorate of Customs Valuation in Quetta. Customs says that advice was old and coal prices had moved. Importers asked at a meeting on 5 October 2026 for the value to follow an international index.

The ruling records that request plainly. Stakeholders said a benchmark based on a published index would track the market better than a fixed number. The Directorate agreed. That is unusual. Most rulings set a fixed dollar figure per ton or per piece, which can fall behind the market within months.

The value is a floor, and a higher invoice still wins

The Argus based figure is a minimum, not a fixed price. If the value in your goods declaration or the invoice found with the cargo is higher, Customs assesses duty on the higher figure. Coal that arrives by air also gets the gap between air and sea freight added.

Here is a simple example with made up numbers. Say the Argus price on your L/C date is $100 a ton and you paid $20 a ton in freight. The customs value is $120 a ton. If your invoice says $125, Customs uses $125. If it says $110, Customs uses $120.

Customs explains how it got there. It says the transaction value method under section 25(1) of the Customs Act, 1969 could not be used because the information needed under section 25(2) was missing. The identical and similar goods methods were set aside because the 90 day data reflected old prices. It then used the published index, which section 25A(1) allows.

Five other valuation rulings went up the same day

FBR posted five more rulings with the coal one on 19 October 2026. They cover truck and bus tyres, staplers, infusion giving sets, a chemical called phenyl ethyl methyl ether and carbon steel seamless pipes. The tyre ruling mostly keeps old values but tidies up the size list.

The tyre ruling has a few rules worth knowing. A radial tyre not listed can be valued 12 per cent above the matching normal tyre. A tyre imported without its tube gets 6 per cent off the ruling value. Tyres brought in by land get a 5 per cent discount. Values shift by 1 per cent for every two ply ratings. If you trade tyres, the changes to additional customs duty on tyres matter as much as the value.

The seamless pipe ruling came after local makers won a revision against PVR 68/2026. The new figure is built from the steel billet price, a US$ 50 a ton billet difference, US$ 300 a ton for making the pipe, and actual freight.

Importers have 30 days to ask for a review

Any importer who thinks a value is wrong can file a review petition with the Director General of Customs Valuation in Karachi within 30 days, under section 25D of the Customs Act. The Director General must decide within 60 days. For the coal ruling dated 12 October, 30 days runs to 11 November 2026.

1. Download the ruling from FBR's customs valuation page and read the table for your PCT code.
2. Collect your invoices, L/C, freight bills and any price index printouts for the period.
3. Write a review petition to the Director General of Customs Valuation, Karachi, within 30 days of the ruling's date.
4. Keep paying duty at the ruling value meanwhile. The Customs Act does not allow a provisional value below a ruling that is in force, even while a review is pending.

The whole process, with what to put in the petition and the next appeal, is in our walk-through on how to check a customs valuation ruling and file a review. To work out the duty itself, start with the PCT code and duty calculator.

Common questions

What is the customs value of coal in Pakistan now?

It is the Argus coal price plus the actual freight, per ton, on a cost and freight basis. The Argus price may be taken from the letter of credit date.

Which coal does the ruling cover?

Coal under PCT codes 2701.1200 and 2701.1900, from all origins.

Does a higher invoice value still count?

Yes. If the declared value or invoice value is higher than the ruling value, Customs charges duty on the higher figure.

What did the ruling replace?

Valuation Advice No. 01/2023, dated 12 September 2023, from the Directorate of Customs Valuation in Quetta.

Can an importer challenge the coal value?

Yes. A review petition can go to the Director General of Customs Valuation, Karachi, within 30 days under section 25D. For this ruling that means by 11 November 2026.

Does the ruling change the duty rate on coal?

No. A valuation ruling only sets the value that duty is charged on. The rates come from the customs tariff.

How we verified this

What we checked, where we read it, and what we could not confirm.

Last checked 20 October 2026. We read PVR 70/2026 (coal), PVR 69/2026 (seamless pipes), VR 2112/2026 (tyres), VR 2114/2026 (infusion sets) and VR 2115/2026 (phenyl ethyl methyl ether) as PDFs from the FBR customs valuation page, whose file names show they were uploaded on 19 October 2026. Section 25A, section 25D and the bar on provisional release are from the Customs Act, 1969 as amended up to 30 June 2026. The rulings are scanned, so a few figures were hard to read; we quote only those we could read clearly. The coal example uses made up numbers. We did not read VR 2113/2026 in full.