Frequently asked questions
The questions a Qatar importer or exporter actually asks
Nine of them, answered with the same figures the quote tool and the declaration use. Nothing here is a rule we made up: every number is either arithmetic you can repeat or regulation you can check.
Prices and quotes
How a number is arrived at
Two figures sit on every quote — the freight and the duty estimate — and they are produced in completely different ways. One is ours, one is not.
How is a freight price calculated?
On chargeable weight, which is the greater of what your cargo weighs and what its volume converts to. A carrier sells space as well as mass, so cargo that is light but bulky is billed on the space it occupies.
The conversion differs by mode. Road divides the volume in cubic centimetres by 5,000 to get kilograms; air divides it by 6,000, which is gentler on bulky cargo even though air costs more per kilogram. Sea does not convert at all — it compares cubic metres against tonnes and bills whichever is greater, the old weight-or-measure rule.
That chargeable weight then picks every vehicle on the lane that can carry the load, and each one is priced. Surcharges that apply to that mode and that cargo are added on top and itemised, never folded into the rate.
How is customs duty calculated, and is your figure final?
Duty is 5% of the CIF value under the GCC Common External Tariff — cost, insurance and freight together, not the goods on their own. That is why freight and duty are quoted together here: the freight price is an input to the duty rather than a separate number beside it. Exemptions and higher rates exist for particular codes.
The figure we show is an estimate. Duty is assessed by the General Authority of Customs on the declaration we file. Anyone quoting you a binding duty figure in advance is quoting something they do not control.
Is there VAT in Qatar?
No. Qatar levies no value added tax as of 2026, so there is no VAT line on an import to budget for and none to reclaim later. Duty and handling are the whole tax picture.
Why was my lane priced by hand instead of instantly?
Because it is not on the instant rate card yet. The card covers GCC lanes through the three gateways — Doha by road, Hamad Port by sea, Hamad International by air — in both directions, but not every city is rated on every mode, and nothing outside the GCC is on it at all.
When that happens the quote form says so on the spot rather than showing you a zero, and keeps your cargo lines as a draft for us to price against. The same thing happens when a consignment is larger or heavier than every standard vehicle and needs out-of-gauge handling.
Customs and documents
What a declaration needs, and who lodges it
A consignment that reaches the border without its paperwork sits there until the paperwork arrives, accruing storage while it waits. This is the part worth settling before anything ships.
What documents do I need?
Five, for a straightforward import:
- A commercial invoice on company letterhead, stamped and signed. An emailed price list or a plain PDF is not sufficient — this is the document the declared value is taken from.
- A packing list stating pieces, weight and volume for every line. This is the same data your freight quote is built from.
- A certificate of origin, confirming where the goods were manufactured. Origin decides which tariff treatment a consignment is entitled to.
- The importer's Qatar commercial registration (CR). A declaration is filed against a registered importer, not against a shipment on its own.
- An import licence where the goods call for one. Whether yours do depends on what they are, and it is worth settling before the cargo ships rather than after it lands.
Why does my HS code need twelve digits?
Because the tariff changed. HS codes under the GCC Integrated Customs Tariff have run to twelve digits since 1 January 2025, and the eight-digit codes still sitting in most importers' product records are no longer sufficient on a declaration.
It matters because the code is what the duty rate hangs off. Classify at the wrong level and the declaration is either rejected or assessed against something your cargo is not.
Who actually files the declaration?
We do. A Qatar declaration is lodged through Al Nadeeb, the General Authority of Customs' single-window system, by a licensed clearing agent — and we are one, so it does not pass through a second firm on the way.
It is built from the same cargo lines your quote was priced on, which is what stops a packing list and a declaration disagreeing about the same shipment.
Moving the cargo
Vehicles, borders and directions
Road into and out of Qatar has constraints the other two modes do not, and they are the kind that turn cargo back rather than merely costing money.
Why can't my truck cross Abu Samra?
Most likely its age. A truck more than five years from its date of manufacture cannot cross at Abu Samra, and Abu Samra is Qatar's only land border — roughly 80 km south of Doha, into Saudi Arabia at Salwa. There is no second crossing to route around it.
It is a routing constraint rather than a formality: the wrong vehicle is turned back with your cargo on it. Every road option in the quote tool carries the rule on it, so it is settled before loading rather than at the border.
Do you handle both import and export?
Yes, and the instant rate card prices both. Every lane on it is rated in each direction — Dubai to Doha as readily as Doha to Dubai — because the trade runs both ways in roughly equal measure, and a quote tool that only priced exports would send every importer to a manual quote.
One honest qualification: the two directions of a lane are rated separately rather than assumed equal, so an import and an export over the same route will not come back at the same number. Where a lane is not on the card at all it is priced by hand, whichever way it runs. Customs clearance on arrival is unaffected either way — that is a licensed activity we perform, not a rate-card entry.
How long does a shipment take?
A GCC road leg typically takes one to two days once the cargo is on the truck. That figure is indicative, not contractual: border processing, customs inspection and conditions on the day all move it, and none of them is under a forwarder's control.
We would rather say that here than bury it in terms you read after the cargo is late. Plan against it; do not promise a customer a date on it.
Still unanswered
If yours is not here
These are the questions we are asked most, not the only ones worth asking. Anything about a specific consignment is better answered against the actual cargo.
Quoted prices are estimates in QAR and rates change. Transit figures are indicative rather than contractual. Duty is assessed by the General Authority of Customs on the declaration we file, so any duty figure shown beforehand is an estimate rather than a final number.
Start here
The fastest answer to most of these is a quote
Enter the pieces, weight and volume once and see the arithmetic applied to your own cargo — every vehicle that can carry it, priced, with an estimated duty beside it.