Review How to Avoid Customs Charges in India When Buying from International Sellers?-eBAY

[Afxal]

It depends on the custom officer and what they make of the item. I had a $100 keyboard come in without customs in the past, and the seller had declared it around $10. On the other hand, a few radio-based items of around $20 and declared by the seller as $5 were charged, though I was able to get it reversed later. The customs officers deal with this day in and day out, so if something seems expensive to them, they will simply flag it.

What's the process of getting the charges reversed? Haven't heard about this before.

 

[YeAhx]

If you want the 8bitdo controller, then I believe you can just order from their website itself. I've seen quite a lot of people ordering from the 8bitdo website and receiving it without having to deal with customs and stuff.

There is no option of selecting India for delivery. How did they even place the order?

 

[antz123]

Recent few experiences -

1. I bought a 60usd keyboard from epomaker and they themselves undervalued it to 20usd without me asking or anything, it was shipped via yanwen and customs were handled by morning global - Zero customs were levied.
2. Ordered a 15usd item from alibaba, these guys also undervalued it to 5usd on their own. It was shipped via china post and cutsoms were handled by India post - again Zero customs were levied.
3. Ordered a 50usd watch from a spanish website, they undervalued it to 20usd. It was shipped via postNL and customs were handled by india post which also did the last mile delivery - 1200rs custom duty levied.

I think if the parcel is small and really low valued then chances of getting custom duty levied are very low if handled by india post.
Try for shipping method where customs is handled by morninglobal or similar vendors, most likely no customs then.

Does Alibaba sends stuff to India? Post covid Amazon international (.com) and Aliexpress/baba don't show India as destination.

 

[asratte]

Does Alibaba sends stuff to India? Post covid Amazon international (.com) and Aliexpress/baba don't show India as destination.

Amazon.com and alibaba both deliver to india. Had bought many Audio cds from amazon.com last year and also baba.

 

[Spout3628]

It depends on the custom officer and what they make of the item. I had a $100 keyboard come in without customs in the past, and the seller had declared it around $10. On the other hand, a few radio-based items of around $20 and declared by the seller as $5 were charged, though I was able to get it reversed later. The customs officers deal with this day in and day out, so if something seems expensive to them, they will simply flag it.

if you don't mind , how much was the charge?

 

[t3chg33k]

What's the process of getting the charges reversed? Haven't heard about this before.

They charged custom duty for a replacement, which was less than $20, after valuing it at $27. At least at Mumbai customs, items below INR 2000 are exempt. I filed a complaint against the customs department on PGPortal with the invoice, stating that it was deliberately overvalued to charge duty, and thereafter was refunded the full duty amount.

if you don't mind , how much was the charge?

The normal BCD + Cess + IGST which goes above 40%. On that note, the 2025 budget reduced the BCD on goods imported for personal from 38.5% to 20%, so you will save quite a bit from April.