Overstayed Cargo Rules: What Changes on 1 October 2026

On 1 October 2026 the Overstayed Cargo Management Rules, 2026 take effect at Pakistan's seaports. For clearing agents the important change is not a new charge — it is who calculates it, and when. The penalty is determined by the Customs Computerized System at the moment you file the Goods Declaration, and the electronic notice comes to the owner of the goods or his authorised agent. That is you.

The instrument is SRO 1347(I)/2026, dated 13 August 2026, which amends the Customs Rules, 2001 and inserts the Overstayed Cargo Management Rules, 2026 as rules 1237 to 1241. It supersedes the July draft, SRO 1081(I)/2026. Everything below is taken from that text. Where a figure is set by a separate instrument we have not been able to read at source, we have left it out rather than repeat it — more on that at the end.

Seaports only

Rule 1238(1) is one sentence and it settles the geography: "These rules shall not apply to land customs stations and airports." If you clear at a land customs station or at an airport, this regime does not reach you. It applies at the seaports.

Five classes of goods are carved out

Rule 1238(2) lists the goods to which section 82(1) of the Customs Act, 1969 does not apply:

goods imported under Chapter 99 of the First Schedule
goods in transit or under international transhipment
goods imported as personal baggage
LCL export cargo
bulk cargo

If you handle consolidated export shipments, note the fourth one. It was not in the draft circulated in July; it appears in the final. Consolidators who priced in this exposure over the summer can take it back out.

The clock starts at filing, or 24 hours after release

Rule 1239(a) is the operative change. The system determines the penalty automatically "at the time of filing of the Goods Declaration (GD), or within 24 hours of the GD release message in the system, as the case may be" — and then issues an electronic notice specifying the amount.

Two practical consequences. First, there is no officer to persuade at the moment of assessment: the determination is automatic and arrives as a system notice. Second, the second trigger means a release message starts a 24-hour window in which a penalty can still be raised. A GD that has cleared is not necessarily a GD that is finished.

Accept, or contest — and the contest clock is short

Rule 1239(b) gives the trader or his authorised clearing agent two options: accept the determined penalty in the system and deposit it, or contest it.

Accept — the amount is payable through the WeBOC payment module (1239(c)).
Contest — the system marks the case to the relevant Collector, or an officer authorised on his behalf, who must pass an order within five working days of the notice being issued. The Chief Collector may extend that by a further five working days, for reasons recorded in writing (1239(d)).

If the notice is vacated, the system allows the GD to be filed or deletes the payable penalty. If it is not vacated, the penalty is processed through the WeBOC payment module (1239(e)).

Five working days is the whole window. Whatever you intend to put in front of the Collector — the bill of lading, the IGM entry, the berthing record, correspondence showing why the delay was not the importer's — it needs to be assembled before you contest, not after.

Appeal: fifteen days, decided in five

Rule 1240 provides an appeal in the computerized system to the respective Chief Collector having jurisdiction, within fifteen days of issuance of the order. The appeal is to be decided within five working days.

Worth noting for anyone working from the July draft: in that version rule 1240 was headed "The Pitch of Penalty". In the final it is "Procedure of Appeal", and the quantum language has moved into 1239(a), which refers to a notification issued by the Board "specifying the quantum of such penalties, from time to time". If you are searching your files for the old term of art, it is no longer in the instrument.

What this means for how you work

The rules move the penalty decision to the moment of filing and give you a five-working-day window to contest it. Three things follow for an agency:

Dates stop being paperwork and start being exposure. Arrival, berthing, completion of assessment and removal each drive the determination. If those dates live in a WhatsApp thread rather than against the job, you will not be able to answer a notice quickly.
The notice reaches the authorised agent. Whoever in your office watches the system needs to know that a notice is now a five-day clock, not a message to action later in the week.
Export consignments have their own timeline. Loading deadlines after port entry are part of this regime, so exporters' delays land on the same desk as importers'.

On the penalty amounts

The rules themselves do not set the amounts. Rule 1239(a) refers them to a separate notification issued by the Board specifying the quantum, approved by the Minister in-charge. Figures have been reported in the national press, and they are large enough to matter — daily rates that step up after the first five days, subject to a maximum.

We are not printing those numbers here. We have not been able to read the notification that sets them at its source, and the citation being quoted for it does not currently resolve on FBR's own listing of active customs SROs. A rate you act on should come from the instrument, not from a secondary report of it — so please take the amounts from the notification itself, or from your collectorate, before you price anything or advise a client.

The rules above are quoted from the text of the notification as published by FBR. Read it yourself rather than take our summary of it — it is SRO 1347(I)/2026, and at the time of writing FBR serves the PDF at download1.fbr.gov.pk/SROs/20268131583356637SRO1347(I)2026.pdf. FBR's download paths carry an upload-id prefix and can change; if that link stops resolving, search the SRO number on fbr.gov.pk. The rules take effect on 1 October 2026.