Carry more goods on India-bound flights

Passengers flying into India will now be able to bring foreign goods worth Rs 45,000 without having to pay any tax at the customs.

This means Indians travelling abroad for holidays and short business trips (over three days) can do more shopping without having to worry about paying taxes at customs. Passengers will now have to declare Indian currency if they are carrying over Rs 25,000. This limit was earlier at Rs 7,500, which was raised to Rs 10,000 in 2014. Now this has been further liberalised.

The finance ministry has notified new rules under the Customs Baggage Declaration (Amendment) Regul- ations, 2015.

The duty-free allowance has also been raised to Rs 45,000 from Rs 35,000 allowing people to bring more goods from foreign country. Any item after duty free allowance will attract customs duty of 36.05 per cent. One laptop computer (notebook computer) over and above the free allowances is also allowed duty free.

However, for passengers flying from China, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar, the limit of duty free allowance has been kept at Rs 6,000.

The new rules have also reduced by 50 per cent the duty free allowance of cigarettes to 100 sticks, 25 cigars and 150 grams of tobacco being brought by the flyers. At present, a passenger can bring 200 number of cigarettes, 50 cigars and 250 grams of tobacco. Passengers will also have to now declare whether they are carrying flat panel (LCD,LED or plasma) television.

Interestingly in 2013, the government had imposed a 36 percent duty on flat-screen televisions that travellers bring back from other countries. This was done after government estimated that passengers in 2012 had brought over a million television sets from other countries, taking advantage of a baggage allowance. Televisions in countries like Bangkok was cheaper than its retail cost in India due to local taxes. Such televisions where then sold in markets like Gaffar Market (New Delhi), Alpha Market (Mumbai) and Fancy Market (Kolkata) among others.

The passengers also need to mention about meat, meat products, fish, dairy and poultry products, seeds, plants, fruits, flowers, other planting material and aggregate value of foreign exchange including currency exceeding $ 10,000 or equivalent in the existing customs form. They also need to declare whether they are carrying satellite phone, which is banned in India.