How To Pay Customs Duty (If Applicable) For Pens/inks

January 20, 2019

Thank you for the information,sir. The key point here is the "assessed value." Let me see how it turns out.
Can I choose not to accept the delivery? Will EMS return the pen to the point of origin? Once it reaches the seller, can I ask for a refund minus the to and fro transportation costs? Will it be economical than accepting the duty?

I dont know. I have never refused delivery. I am not sure what the india post policy reg returns is. I know that you can send back the item for re assessment. But I dont know whether the articles are sent back or confiscated in case of refusal by addressee.

Indian customs tariff is no fault of the seller and he will be unnecessarily hassled by refusal. He might decide not to sell to Indian customers in the future. Already many sellers are refusing to ship to India.

January 20, 2019

I dont know. I have never refused delivery. I am not sure what the india post policy reg returns is. I know that you can send back the item for re assessment. But I dont know whether the articles are sent back or confiscated in case of refusal by addressee.

Indian customs tariff is no fault of the seller and he will be unnecessarily hassled by refusal. He might decide not to sell to Indian customers in the future. Already many sellers are refusing to ship to India.

As per my knowledge, items refused to pay custom duty are confiscated by customs department and auctioned later on.

January 23, 2019

I dont know. I have never refused delivery. I am not sure what the india post policy reg returns is. I know that you can send back the item for re assessment. But I dont know whether the articles are sent back or confiscated in case of refusal by addressee.

Indian customs tariff is no fault of the seller and he will be unnecessarily hassled by refusal. He might decide not to sell to Indian customers in the future. Already many sellers are refusing to ship to India.

January 23, 2019

Thank you for the information sir.

What you have pointed out is correct only.

January 23, 2019

Well,

To conclude my purchase experience,let me share the following:

1) To my surprise,NO Customs Duty was levied at all! As Mehandiratta sir had earlier pointed out,it seems customs people do random checking only.I was my pure luck in that the seller had marked gift on the packet along with the price tag of Japanese Yen equivalent of close to 84 dollars for the pen,and still duty was not charged.

2) If the time stamp on the EMS tracking is to be believed, the package got customs clearance in around 6 minutes time! I dont think tracking details are real-time based.

3) The Japan Post tracking was not correct in that it was showing "presented to Customs" at Kolkata, whereas India Post was correctly showing as transit to Chennai.

4) There was one day unjustified delay at Chennai local post office about which the Postman was clueless.

5) In total, it took only 8 days from 15/01 to 23/01 for the pen to be delivered from Japan to Chennai and that's a pretty decent pace.

Summing up, I was quite lucky to have escaped a 42% duty close to Rs.2500, with which I have now ordered my first Twsbi Eco😜

February 12, 2020

Recently I purchased a Visconti Travelling Ink Well from Cult Pens which finally got delivered today.

The price of inkwell was £36 and they charged me a further £10 for shipping. Customs assessed the value of the package as Rs 3,948 (I dunno how?) and charged me a flat duty of 42.08% + further Rs 100 (Postal Charges). They also kept my parcel on a 'Custom Hold' for 1 week before releasing it yesterday. The postman collected the amount of Rs 1,761 from me today while delivering the package. It can only be paid in cash as they do not have any other mode for collection.

I was surprised as I thought the value of this package wasn't high enough to be under the radar of Customs. I have purchased a brand new fountain pen of a much much higher value in the past from another country and it sailed through without any duty. I now wonder whether all this happens just randomly.

Edited February 12, 2020 by ljmudit

February 5, 2024

So it's 2024 and i wonder what Peoples experiences are now to get Japanese pens in india? Do you guys buy on amazon or what is it that people do ?

I've had to ship things to the US and wait for someone to come by to finally get my hands on these things in the past..(fearing ridiculous import duties)

Is there any better way to do this?