Laptops import duty?

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yup, because I had used USPS Express Mail, which delivers within 7 days ( Generally takes 5 days to arrive in india and after that it depends on customs dept. that how many days they want to keep it detained! :) ). if you are lucky, you will get it released soon. they send you a post-card to notify you that your parcel is detained and you need to reply them for further procedure. but dont wait for the postcard if you have their phone number.

You need to do following when your parcel get shipped from USA.

1. keep tracking parcel on USPS/FEDEX website

2. once you see "Arrival in abroad" and "out of foreign customs" in tracking status, then call to your foreign post office. ( if you live in 4 of the major cities in india i.e. Delhi,Mumbai,Chennai and Kolkata, then you may get parcel quick as possible ) call them and tell them that your parcel with XXX number ( for ex. CP1234567890US) came from USA and you want to know status of it. they will tell you what happened with ur parcel. If it got detained, they will tell you to call customs dept. regarding this.

3. Now call custom dept. and ask them for ur parcel and say that you are ready to pay duty for it.

4. they will release ur parcel and within 2-3 days you will get it at your home. keep your money ready as you will need to pay duty to your postman ;).

all above is general procedure, it all depends on MOOD of custom officers.

Dont waste your money on USPS priority mail, it will take 15-20 days. our postoffice recognize only USPS ExpressMail as "SpeedPost" and all others are "general post" for them!

Fedex is too costly, I recommend USPS Express Mail if you want to get ur parcel quickly,

if you want to save money, and can wait for 20 days, then you can use Priority mail.

again, as I said, it depends on custom dept. 2 years ago, I had imported a parcel with priority mail , which arrived at my home at 8th day after shipped from there!!

there are many tips I can write, but above is enough I think :)
 
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Cool man, hope your tip becomes a sticky as its very useful and clears all the myths about Customs people.
 
+1 for sticky. Extremely useful information. I thought getting something delivered from U.S was more or less impossible without paying 100% custom duty. Thanks a lot man! :)

amit_talkin said:
Declared price of parcel is $550 USD.
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Pardon me for my noobish question, is the declaration is done at the time of the shipping? Isn't the bill required? And did you friend open and send only the lappy to you or did he send it to you without opening the whole packing ( i.e. brand new or did he make it look used)?
 
Did the customs people open your package and check the contents? Did they reevaluate the price or they took the declared value and charged 18% duty on it?
 
Sei said:
Pardon me for my noobish question, is the declaration is done at the time of the shipping? Isn't the bill required? And did you friend open and send only the lappy to you or did he send it to you without opening the whole packing ( i.e. brand new or did he make it look used)?
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Yes, you need to tell "sender" to declare specific amount when he/she ship from there. declare low price as possible, but not too much low. because customs' ppl atleast know that laptops cant be bought for $200!

They wont open box if pictures on box clearly showing whats inside it? I mean box packed item! If box is generic parcel box, they will open it to check whats inside?

Your bill amount wont be noticed. customs' will calculate their own price of what you have bought. generally they will accept the declared price if stated right. ( for ex. I have declared $550 , which is fair amount. so they accpeted it. But if you declare too low , like $200 then they get doubt on it and will check on internet for the price )

You can declare low price on some parts, which are not too famous in India ( or alteast not known by customs' ) like Water cooling kit, high-end gaming mice, etc. ( for ex. If you buy a WaterCooling parts, you can declare all parts under $150 , no matter if you have paid over $300 for it! )

Again, There are many possible ways to work around, you just need to get some experience with importing stuffs:)
 
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^ Again, thanks! I guess it's a matter of being lucky too. Also, is there any kind of penalty if they discover that you have underpriced the item? Or, you just have to pay the custom duty on their "researched" (for e.g. internet) price?
 
amit_talkin said:
Yes, you need to tell "sender" to declare specific amount when he/she ship from there. declare low price as possible, but not too much low. because customs' ppl atleast know that laptops cant be bought for $200!
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This is really down to how experienced the ppl in the customs office are. If you come from a tier-2 city chances of getting away with it are much better. Mumbai, chennai hehe, i think those types will google the thing and then tell you how it will be :D

Having said that this thread is very encouraging for ppl that want to get stuff that isn't available locally :)
 
The next time i want to bring something expensive...i will buy it....create a fake website / webpage etc with my price, such that it is is top results of google and then come. Then will tell them to google it :D
 
raksrules said:
The next time i want to bring something expensive...i will buy it....create a fake website / webpage etc with my price, such that it is is top results of google and then come. Then will tell them to google it :D
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wow, thats ingenuous! God would be so proud of you :bleh:
 
raksrules said:
The next time i want to bring something expensive...i will buy it....create a fake website / webpage etc with my price, such that it is is top results of google and then come. Then will tell them to google it :D
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Heh, that was the advice i got many yrs back when i was trying to pick which airport to transit through when returning with a laptop. They said forget mumbai, go straight to BLR as it would be easier to just bribe the guy at customs. The mumbai ppl had lists and would catch you out if you underquoted on price.

Turns out it was not necessary as I came back with a cousin of mine that was a foreign citizen. We just swapped bags on arrival and put it through their x-ray machine. As the bags came out my cousin grabbed mine and walked away.

I still remember the customs officer saying "Where is that bag with the laptop?" :lol:

This was back in the good ol'days where if you had no return ticket, you paid duty on the imported item there & then. They had to scrap that rule after techies started flying back & forth on a regular basis.
 
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