Ereader from Japan - Customs and Other Queries

soulweaver

soulweaver

Nice is Free
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I am desperately looking for a large E-reader. I found the reviews and the general impressions of the Kobo Aura One to be pretty good.

Considering that it is a nice 7.8 inch screen and it is actually waterproof, It will make for a nice upgrade from the Kindle Paperwhite 2013 I have.

A couple of sellers from Japan are providing international shipping. The question I have is, did anyone get something like this posted to India?

How much should I be expecting to pay? The product itself costs about $250. Customs should be around 30% is there anything else that I would have to pay over and above that?

Also, there is a mention somewhere saying that the customs duty is not based on the invoice value but on the assessed value. How does anyone go about it?

Thank you in advance!
 
soulweaver said:
Also, there is a mention somewhere saying that the customs duty is not based on the invoice value but on the assessed value. How does anyone go about it?
Click to expand...

This is quite blurry area. Some assess it based on Indian market price of same or similar product. Some would assess on declared value on invoice. @Party Monger had to deal with one of his orders. He can throw more light.
 
Japanese companies declare full price in Yen on the customs declaration form they fill. (Don't ask them to do any money lowering tactics on invoice since they won't and also customs here will charge xtra duty for evading tax)
I think our customs guys use that price declared to compute the duty. Also one more point is if you select EMS as shipping method, it will get stalled at customs since any parcel above 4k though SpeedPost (EMS) is not allowed as per Indian rules. All my packages from Japan came though EMS and were given a duty of 1-1.5k each for around 5-10k worth of items. Had to go to customs office in CST airport one day too cause they were asking for import number. This was around 6-7 years back. Probably nothing would have changed by now. So expect around 5k as duty and 100 extra for postman if you use speedpost. Best to use speedpost since packages usually arrive in 4-5 days at home.
 
Thanks a lot for the information. I will see if I can source it from the US. If I do decide to get it from Japan, I will keep you guys posted as to how it goes for me!
 
vyral_143 said:
This is quite blurry area. Some assess it based on Indian market price of same or similar product. Some would assess on declared value on invoice. @Party Monger had to deal with one of his orders. He can throw more light.
Click to expand...
If they find that the value is low, or if it goes in for assessment, they open the box and google and find the prices. Generally they find results from Amazon.com etc which are higher than the deals you get it for. So options are -
1) Either ask the seller to put an invoice with the parcel
2) Try your luck, If they dont add duties then its great, if they do and assess it higher then you can send it for revaluation via local post office if it comes through india post. Takes a month and some following up for revaluation.
 
I ordered Zero iems via White Rabit Japan. No hassle at all. In fact I found there customer care very much customer friendly. They also offer service of Forwarding. Just ask them via chat option available on there website.
Regarding custom duty no one can tell u exact amount (for electronic items 39%) since it all depends on declared value and your luck.
 
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