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

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My friend is sending me some salvaged electronic items from Europe. I will ask him to avoid FedEx and DHL and instead use the regular postal service.

The friend can write the value as <10 USD and "used personal components" as the description.

Is there anything else I could do here? Thanks.
 
@dhirubhai if they check your package, "Used personal components" may be considered a violation of anti dumping laws and attract even higher charges in penalties.
 
This sounds a bit far-fetched to me. Do you have a better description?

Edit: Something vague like "IC board" might work better? AliExpress packages always use very generic terms.

The components and boards are really salvaged and are second-hand (or even fourth-hand by now). Anti-dumping is about imports and their economic impact (it seems and not about "wastage dumping") and doesn't really apply for this < 10 USD thing?
 
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Hi All,

I recently sent a package (HDMI splitter) valued S$50 from Singapore to India.

Duty came to around 98% of my product value. When I confronted customs (India), i got a email reply as follow

"In this regard, it is to inform you that Goods mentioned in the Bill of Entry have been declared as personal goods and classified under 98049000. Therefore, Duty as per customs circular no.04/2020-Cus dated 21.01.2020 has been levied on this consignment. As per circular duty, leviable on personal goods is BCD@35%, IGST@28%, and SWS@10%

Your consignment invoice value is 50SGD, which has to be converted into an assessable value by adding Freight and Insurance charges for duty calculation .

Invoice value in INR = 50 SGD, Rate of Exchange is 54.95, hence invoice value in INR is 50*54.95=2747.5
Freight Charges = 20% of Invoice value i.e. 20% of 2747.5 = 549.50,
Insurance Charges = 1.125% of Invoice value + Freight Charges i.e. 1.125% of (2747.5+549.5) = 37.09
Assessable Value = Invoice value + Freight charges + Insurance Charges = 2747.5+549.5+37.09 = 3334.09
Taking round figure = 3334
Basic Customs Duty (BCD) = 35% of Assessable value = 1167
Social Welfare Surcharges (SWS) = 10% of Basic Customs Duty = 117
IGST = 28% of (Assessable value + Basic Customs duty + Social Welfare Charges) = 1293

Total Duty = BCD + SWS + IGST = 1167+117+1293 = 2577."


Is it valid?
 
How did you confront the customs, anyway? Did you send an email? My emails were unanswered the last time I checked.
 
@kramac That sounds about right. Previously the BCD for CTH 9804 was 10%, hence the total duty came to 41% or so. Now the BCD has been bumped to 35% which translates to around 77% of assessable value.

I guess the thread title needs to be updated.

Get an IEC 😁
 
I have a package coming via post and I had asked the seller to include my IEC along with the invoice. This is the first time I'm getting a package through post where I'd be getting it cleared with an IEC. Not sure of the exact steps, but the invoice value is around 10k, 77% duty would be disastrous. Hopefully they take the IEC into consideration. 😅

When getting a package through courier, making use of the IEC is super straight forward and I'm getting all my packages with just 18% GST (BCD is 0% for the items I usually get)
 
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