Pakistan Post COD: charges, account, payout and tracking

Pakistan Post does cash on delivery through two services: Value Payable Parcel (VPP), and UMS-COD, a cash-on-delivery version of its Urgent Mail Service. You book either at a post office counter, and regular and corporate clients can register for pickup and monthly billing. As of October 2026 a VPP costs Rs 280 up to 1 kg in any city, and UMS-COD for a walk-in customer starts at Rs 75. Pakistan Post publishes no payout time, and its 2026 sheet is silent on the money order fee. This page gives the rates it does publish and the exact questions to ask before you ship.

Which Pakistan Post service takes COD

Three services can carry a value-payable item. Details are from Pakistan Post’s own pages, as of October 2026:

Pakistan Post’s value payable page describes the VP system as for traders who want the post office to recover the value of what they supplied, with a supplementary Rs 20 fee per article. The UMS-COD page says the service has no restriction on contents except prohibited items.

How to open a Pakistan Post COD account

Pakistan Post has no sign-up page for sellers. There are two routes:

• Walk-in. Take the parcel to a booking counter and ask for VPP, or UMS-COD where it is offered. You pay the walk-in tariff and carry each parcel yourself.
• Registered customer. The Regular / Corporate Clients page offers a pickup and credit facility to bulk customers who fill in a Customer Registration Form. The nearest GPO or Express Post Centre helps complete the formalities, after which Express Post couriers visit on a pre-arranged schedule, with emergency pickup on call.

The form asks for your registered number, name, address, phone, contact person, office hours, the services you need, and account information including deposit and monthly handling charges. It asks for no CNIC or NTN, and no document list is published for COD. Bring both anyway and ask the counter what else it wants. FBR’s registration rule is in how to open a COD account with TCS, Leopards and PostEx.

The page says registered customers are billed monthly, with payment due within 7 days of the bill, and get a discounted tariff. The form also mentions advance payment at booking, so ask which applies to you. The 2026 sheet lists one UMS-COD corporate rate and no volume bands, so ask what discount your volume earns.

Parcel and letter rates from October 1, 2026

The Value Payable Parcel is priced by weight only, with no city zones: a 1 kg parcel to Karachi costs the same as one to Skardu. The rate includes postage, registration and the VP fee. From the VPP page, with the plain registered parcel rate beside it:

For a light flat item that qualifies as a letter, the Value Payable Letter can cost less. Its rate includes the Rs 20 VP fee. Ask the counter whether your item counts as a letter.

UMS-COD rates, and the UMO fee to ask about

The UMS tariff sheet effective October 1, 2026 lists these UMS-COD fees, inclusive of GST. GST is 16% in the Federal Capital and Punjab, 15% in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, and 13% in Sindh.

The 2026 sheet lists no Urgent Money Order (UMO) fee. The earlier October 2023 UMS-COD sheet charged a COD fee plus a separate UMO fee that rose with the COD amount: Rs 175 city to city and Rs 135 local up to Rs 10,000, rising to Rs 250 and Rs 210 for Rs 50,001 to Rs 100,000. It came from Director General’s Circular No. 10 of 2023, dated October 3, 2023 and effective October 15, 2023, which moved both charges to booking so that the buyer pays only the declared value, and added that if a UMS-COD article is returned, the UMO charges are considered the article return charges.

Whether the UMO fee still applies is not published. Pakistan Post’s UMO tariff page still lists the same commission for UMS-COD, and the UMS-COD page on ep.gov.pk still carries the 2023 totals. The 2026 corporate rates match the COD fee column of the 2023 corporate table, which was charged before the UMO fee. Treat the UMO fee as a question, not a cost. Ask: “Is the UMO commission charged on top of the UMS-COD fee for my parcel, and what total do I pay at the counter?” The full list is in the checklist below.

One limit is stated on Pakistan Post’s UMS-COD page: door-step payment is available only up to a COD value of Rs 50,000, and articles above that, up to Rs 100,000, are delivered at the window of designated post offices. For door delivery, keep COD orders under Rs 50,000.

A Rs 3,000 order, route by route, and what refusals add

The assumptions: a 1 kg parcel, a Rs 3,000 COD order, city to city, and you pay the fee at the counter. It ignores withholding tax, which Pakistan Post does not say it deducts, and returns:

The UMO question swings the walk-in UMS-COD fee from the cheapest route to the dearest, which is why it comes first on your list. If the 2023 rule still applies and the parcel is refused, the Rs 175 UMO fee stays as the return charge, so a refused walk-in parcel would cost the full Rs 375 and bring in nothing. If Pakistan Post withholds tax, that is Rs 60 on a Rs 3,000 order at 2% and Rs 120 at 4%. To compare a private courier, use the courier charges calculator.

The refusal rate matters more than the route. You pay the fee at booking, so a refused parcel is a fee the delivered ones have to cover. The cost per delivered parcel is the fee divided by the share delivered: Rs 280 ÷ 0.9 = Rs 311 at 1 in 10 refused, and Rs 280 ÷ 0.8 = Rs 350 at 1 in 5. The table assumes the fee is not refunded on a refusal and that no separate return charge is added, which is the best case, since Pakistan Post publishes no VPP return charge:

At one refusal in five, the unanswered UMO question is worth Rs 219 per delivered parcel on the walk-in UMS-COD route (Rs 469 against Rs 250), and the Rs 280 VPP fee becomes Rs 350. Cutting refusals from one in five to one in ten saves Rs 39 per delivered parcel on a VPP, so confirm orders before dispatch, as in how to reduce COD returns.

Payout and tracking

Payout. Pakistan Post publishes no payout time for COD. The UMS-COD page says the sum due to the sender is remitted by Urgent Money Order, not that it is deposited in a bank account, and nothing is published for VPP. Ask: “How many working days after delivery am I paid, and is it into my bank account (IBAN) or only by money order?” For comparison, Leopards says weekly, within a week of delivery, and Trax claims within 24 hours. The private couriers’ stated cycles are in COD payment cycle in Pakistan.

Tracking. Pakistan Post’s tracking site is ep.gov.pk, where you enter the Tracking Id. It warns that any other site claiming to track its parcels does not belong to it, and that it never asks for payment online or by call centre. Tell your buyers this, because a fake tracking link is an easy way to scam someone waiting on a parcel. The home page also links its EMTTS app on Google Play, and the helpline is 051-111-111-117.

Ask the post office: the checklist

Five answers decide whether Pakistan Post is cheap or dear for you, and its pages settle none of them. Ask each in writing before your first volume shipment:

The VP MO row shows why it matters. If the Rs 75 commission were added on top of the Rs 280 VPP rate, a Rs 3,000 order would cost Rs 355 and you would keep Rs 2,645, not Rs 2,720. That is a scenario, not a published fee, which is why it is a question.

Where to ask: ep.gov.pk lists E-Commerce Facilitation Centers at the GPOs in Gujrat, Multan, Peshawar, Karachi, Islamabad, Faisalabad, Sialkot and Gujranwala, with landline numbers on its facilitation centres page. A message you can paste into WhatsApp or an email, or print and hand over:

Assalam o alaikum. We run [brand name], an online store selling [category]. We plan to ship about [number] COD parcels a month from [city], mostly [weight] kg to [cities], with an average order of Rs [amount]. Please reply in writing with: the all-in fee for a Value Payable Parcel and for UMS-COD on our parcel, including any money order commission and who pays it; how many working days after delivery we are paid, and whether into a bank account; what a refused parcel costs us for each service; whether you deduct income tax on our COD collections; and whether registered customers get pickup from our address. Our NTN is [number].

Where it is strong, and when to pick it

Pakistan Post says its network reaches places other carriers cannot, and its about page counts 13,419 post offices. The UMS-COD list backs this up for the places sellers worry about. It includes Bagh, Kotli, Mirpur and Rawalakot in AJK, Gilgit, Skardu, Hunza and Astore in Gilgit-Baltistan, Gwadar, Turbat and Zhob in Balochistan, Chitral, Swat and South Waziristan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Thar and Mithi in Sindh. The Same Day Delivery service covers selected areas of cities including Gilgit, Skardu, Muzaffarabad and Mirpur, for booking up to 20 kg.

Being on the list means the booking is accepted, not that it arrives in a set time, so send one test parcel first. Then decide:

The private couriers side by side are in best courier service in Pakistan. A common set-up is a private courier for the cities it covers well and Pakistan Post for the rest.

Where your store fits

On Storelala, Core (Rs 2,000 a month, or Rs 1,000 a month billed yearly) books PostEx, Leopards and TCS from the order screen, with the tracking number sent to your buyer on WhatsApp. Pakistan Post is not one of those three, so you book it at the counter and give the buyer the tracking number yourself. Lite is free forever, up to 10 products, and takes cash on delivery. Prices are on the pricing page.

Questions sellers ask

How do I open a Pakistan Post COD account?

For a few parcels you need no account: take the parcel to a booking counter and send it as a Value Payable Parcel or, at one of the 226 UMS locations, as a UMS-COD article. For daily pickup and credit, Pakistan Post asks regular and corporate clients to fill in a Customer Registration Form, which the nearest GPO or Express Post Centre helps you complete. It publishes no list of documents, so ask the counter what to bring. Its E-Commerce Facilitation Centers at eight GPOs, listed on ep.gov.pk, are the place to ask.

What are Pakistan Post’s COD charges?

From October 1, 2026 a Value Payable Parcel costs Rs 280 up to 1 kg, Rs 420 up to 3 kg and Rs 560 up to 5 kg, covering postage, registration and the value-payable fee. UMS-COD for a walk-in customer is Rs 110 city to city up to 250 g and Rs 150 up to 500 g, with Rs 50 for each additional 500 g. Pakistan Post’s UMO tariff page still lists a money order commission for UMS-COD, Rs 175 city to city up to Rs 10,000, and the 2026 sheet does not say whether it is added on top. Its money order page also lists a VP MO commission of Rs 75 up to Rs 10,000 without saying it applies to VPP. Ask for the total before you book.

How long does Pakistan Post take to pay the COD money, and is tax deducted?

Pakistan Post publishes no payout time for Value Payable Parcels or UMS-COD. Its UMS-COD page says the amount for the sender is remitted by Urgent Money Order, and it does not say whether you can be paid into a bank account. It also does not say whether it deducts tax. Under section 153(2A), explained in FBR Income Tax Circular 01 of 2025–26, couriers withhold 2% of the COD amount they remit to a seller on FBR’s Active Taxpayers List and 4% for one who is not, a final tax by default. The Finance Act 2026 lets a seller with turnover up to Rs 200 million opt out of the final regime when filing from tax year 2027. Ask the counter or an E-Commerce Facilitation Center for the payout days, the payout route and the tax treatment, and get them in writing before you ship in volume. For comparison, Leopards says weekly, within a week of delivery.

How do I track a Pakistan Post COD parcel?

Go to ep.gov.pk and enter the Tracking Id Pakistan Post gave you at booking. The home page also links its EMTTS app on Google Play. Pakistan Post says any other site claiming to track its parcels does not belong to it, and that it never asks for payment online or through its call centre. For a parcel that looks stuck, the helpline is 051-111-111-117.

Does Pakistan Post deliver cash on delivery to AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan?

Its UMS-COD page lists 226 cities and towns, including Azad Kashmir, Bagh, Bhimber, Kotli, Mirpur, Neelum, Poonch and Rawalakot in AJK, and Gilgit, Skardu, Hunza, Astore, Ghizer, Shigar and Rondu in Gilgit-Baltistan. A place being on the list means Pakistan Post takes the booking. It does not publish delivery times, so send one test parcel first.

What does Pakistan Post charge when a COD parcel is returned?

For Value Payable Parcels it publishes no return charge. For UMS-COD, Director General’s Circular No. 10 of 2023 says that if the article is returned, the UMO charges are considered the article return charges, which was Rs 175 city to city up to Rs 10,000. The 2026 tariff sheet does not repeat or cancel that rule, so ask the counter what a refusal costs before you book. Separately, Pakistan Post’s customer guide says an article for an unknown addressee is kept for seven days before it goes back to the sender. That is its general rule for all articles, not a COD-specific one.