All international "Gift" packages now liable for customs duty @ 77%(?)

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" a) Personal Imports with CIF value of more than Rs 1000/- are subjected to Import duty of 42.08% (Sl. No. 609 of Notification No. 50/2017-Customs dated 30.06.2017). Commercial Imports are subjected to import duty as per their classification under Customs Tariff Act, 1975 (Refer- Circular No. 14/2018-Customs dated 04.06.2018). b) Bonafide commercial samples and prototypes imported by post are exempted from Customs Duty, subject to a value limit of Rs. 10,000/- provided the samples are supplied free of cost (Refer Customs Manual 2015). "

" Importers having IEC number can import commercial samples through post without payment of duty upto a value of Rs. 1,00,000/- or 15 units in number within a period of 12 months. c) the goods sent as personal gift to the recipient, valued less than Rs 5000/- (FOB) are cleared without payment of duty as per the Notification 77/2017-Cus dated 13.10.2017. "


I don't know how to use IEC with Postal shipments though, they don't have a portal for submitting IEC ?
 
Technically you should be able to make use of the IEC there too and get the item cleared at the category wise tariffs, but I don't know how it needs to be done. Haven't seen much information about that.

In postal mode also, all dutiable shipments are cleared at the 42% duty rate. But low value or small items are usually released without duty when coming through postal mode. In express courier mode, every single shipment whatever the value (unless the duty is less than Rs 100 after proper assessment) would have a duty attached.
 
Hi, I have a parcel coming in from the US from Github education. It has around 100 sheets, some stickers, and 31 comic booklets. I had to update my KYC with FedEx. I applied for the GitHub educator program and they are sending those for free. The bill they mailed was of $0 and the shipping also was free (as per the invoice mailed to me). I updated the KYC as 'personal'. Can anyone tell me if I need to pay customs fees? Waiting for someone to reply.
 
@JB701 It's showing "CBE not filed", had updated my KYC a couple of hours ago. I had to send Github my department address a long time back. Now, the university office is closed and FedEx is asking me to provide an NoC from the university about the shipment declaring that it is for personal and not university use. I have filed the KYC for personal nevertheless. Can't get an NoC now. These customs rules are such a headache!!! The products are pretty low-valued with some small stickers and leaflets (around 100 of them). Do you think this would be a problem?
 
Yeah the new rules suck. And FedEx's outsourced KYC team sucks even more. They ask for pointless documents. I'm sure they haven't even forwarded the docs to the real FedEx KYC team (that actually files the CBE). Through some other carrier, it would have got processed without much of an issue, but FedEx is 😑.

If it's a shipment coming via express courier, try to give a non-office/college address in the future if it's for personal use.

All I can say is good luck, pls do post here once you get the item.

Regarding the duty, it should get cleared duty free, but with FedEx you never know. If there is no duty, FedEx wouldn't charge extra but even if there is 100-200 as duty, you'd need to pay FedEx's handling charge.
 
I read these posts and I am scared! FedEx team called me thrice and asked about my address, they were like, "what is this, your office, university of something". I said it's the name of my house after the first call when they asked me to upload that NoC. On the third call, they asked me to sign a declaration that it is my house name, addressed to some head at the customs department if the KYC gets rejected tomorrow. I've never imported items and I am scared I might get into trouble due to filling up my KYC as 'personal'. Watched some youtube videos and chose to put ten zeroes as my IEC (didn't even know about it until today) I don't want this headache. I've mailed Github to cancel that order, yet to receive a response though. Thankfully, the KYC team on the first call said the flight is scheduled for 3rd November (and delivery on 4th) and I hope Github cancels that order for good. Am receiving robocalls from Fedex now saying my shipment is on hold at customs due to non-submission of KYC though It hasn't been 24 hours since GH shipped it!!!!!
 
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