Custom Duty

News About Tax Custom Duty

• Flyers caught sneaking in iPhones in Ahmedabad

  The release of the latest Apple iPhone 7 and 7 plus only just launched 2 days ago but custom officials in Ahmedabad have said that they caught plenty of flyers sneaking the phones into the city.

  Custom officials, who didn’t want to disclose their names, said that they were catching at least 2 or 3 individuals over the last few weeks every day, who were sneaking in new iphone 7 and its bigger sibling iphone 7s.

  They also said that these phones are usually being sold at price as high as Rs. 67,000 in the black market for the 32GB variant.

  This is however considered flouting the rules because, every passenger is allowed to carry a maximum of 2 phones and carrying anymore would mean that they would have to pay 34% of the bill as excise duty. The officials further said that flyers carrying extra phones were usually asked to pay up the duty and if they failed to, they would confiscate the phones right away.

  

  18th October 2016

• Domestic Stainless Steel Industry looks to increase Customs Duty

  In a move to discourage and plug the inflow of cheaper imports coming in through China, the domestic steel industry has requested the government to increase import duty on imports coming in from the neighbouring country. The Steel Minister for India, Chaudhary Birender Singh met the various stainless steel associations on Thursday where he was informed of all the issues plaguing the industry including a 3.1 Trillion Rupee debt that the industry already has and how demands were falling due to cheap imports from China that have caused 27% of the loans in the industry to become distressed.

  While the domestic steel industry is pushing for an increase in import duty from existing 7.5% to 12.5%, the Indian government is contemplating increasing the import duty from products from china to protect Indian manufactures and counter the subsidies offered by the Chinese government to its steel manufacturers.

  

  30th September 2016

• How to check the status of your ITR-V sent by post to CPC

  The Central Board of Direct Taxes has confirmed that 7.53 million taxpayers have used e-verification of income tax returns till August 5th 2016, which was the last date for filing ITR this assessment year(AY). However, a large number of taxpayers still send the signed ITR-Vs to the Centralized Processing Center. If you prefer this mode, then you need to track the acknowledgement.

  After sending the ITR-V to CPC, you can check whether it has been received by logging on to the income tax department’s e-filing website, incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in

  • Under ‘Services’, the e-Filing tab will have the option ‘ITR-V Receipt Status’. Here you need to enter your PAN and the relevant AY.
  • If the signed ITR-V has been received by CPC, it will reflect in the status.
  • If the status does not reflect this, and the time limit of 120 days has not lapsed, then you can either e-verify or resend the signed ITR-V again.
  • If you fail to do so, your return will be invalidated.

  

  23rd August 2016

• DoT Urged Not To Charge Import Duty on 4G Smartphones

  Handset owners have requested the telecom department (DoT) to classify import duty charges of 4G phones and 4G/LTE telecom equipment to custom authorities, in order to avoid being charged the BCD (basic custom duty). The ICA (Indian Cellular Association) representing reputed phone brand such as Apple, LG, Samsung and Micromax has urged DoT to interfere into this matter.

  This incident happened after the case of Bengaluru customs charging 10% BCD on 4G smartphones, as levied on 4G gear imports. The BCD was charged on top of CVD (Countervailing duty) of 12.5%. The ICA wrote the letter to DoT to avoid any such incidents in the future.

  

  1st August 2016

• Government may increase Import Duty on Aluminium by 2.5%

  The Central Government is considering increasing the import duty on aluminium products by 2.5 percent, according to Balvinder Kumar, mines secretary. A meeting was held this week with primary aluminium producers to discuss this move.

  The 2016 Budget increased the basic customs duty on primary aluminium from 5 percent to 7.5 percent, and that on aluminium products from 7.5 percent to 10 percent.

  The proposed hike in import duty on aluminium products comes after the Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises raised concerns over the impact of cheap aluminium imports on the state-owned producers of the metal such as Nalco, Vedanta Aluminium and Hindalco. Because of low import duty, aluminium is being imported from countries like China instead of being domestically sourced.  

  

  15th July 2016

• Extended period for Minimum Support Price of Steel

  The current Minimum Support Price for steel in the country can be extended by another 6 months. This price was to expire on 31st August this year. However, the primary steelmakers of India have requested the Prime Minister to extend the timeline for applicability of Minimum Support Price of steel. Experts believe that had the MSP not been imposed, the survival of the steel industry would have been jeopardized.

  Managing Director at Tata Steel, Shri TV Narendran said that MSP for steel should continue since the international market is currently going through a turmoil. MSP stops companies from selling steel at a loss in India; before MSP most companies were selling steel at a loss in the domestic market. The idea behind MSP for steel is to provide relief to the domestic industry which is suffering under stress of imports from nations like China and other surplus countries

  

  7th July 2016

• 20 Per Cent Export Duty On Sugar In Bid To Control Prices

  A 20 per cent export duty has been levied on all sugar exports in a bid to increase domestic supply as well as to keep prices in control. With sugar prices surging to record highs at Rs. 40 per kilo from around Rs. per kilo six months ago, the move has been welcome from all quarters at a time when prices have drastically increased all across the board for a number of commodities such as tomato, wheat and pulses. The Finance Ministry stated in a release that in order to keep the domestic prices of sugar at bay, the government took the decision to implement a custom duty of 20 per cent on all exports of raw sugar, white or refined sugar. The decision has been notified by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) as well. While the duty imposed was done to check exports due to rising global prices, it is still 25 per cent lower than what the Food Ministry had initially proposed.

  

  27th June 2016

• CBEC works on new customs clearance framework for expats

  Expats in the UAE can now bring along a lot more gold to India without worrying about increased excise duty. CBEC, Central Board of Excise and Customs is setting new rules and guidelines to ease the process of carrying gold from UAE to India. This, however, holds true only for gold that is being carried for personal use. Currently, there is a long process involved in carrying gold to India from UAE or any other country.

  Male expats are allowed to carry just 18 grams of gold while for female expats the limit is 36 grams. However, CBEC is now looking into new norms to facilitate carrying of jewelry in case of weddings etc.when the amount that needs to be carried is greater than the set limit.

  

  9th June 2016

• Payment of Customs Duty by card is the most preferred way

  Most customers landing at the Mumbai airport prefer to pay their customs duty by credit or debit card, a survey held at the Chhatrapti Shivaji Airport revealed. The survey also pointed out that most passengers who are returning from abroad have no clue as to the customs duty norms or payment amount. Only a handful of passengers are bothered about finding out customs duty information before boarding their flight. The rest of the passengers make enquiries only when stopped by a customs duty official.

  A whopping 73 per cent of passengers who landed at the Mumbai airport were ignorant of the customs duty norms for various goods and services. Jewelry items and television sets remain the two goods which clash with the customs duty officials the most. Around 60 per cent of flying passengers are not bothered to learn or enquire about customs regulation till the last hour.

  

  27th May 2016

• Government withdraws Customs Duty on Mobile Accessories

  The government has withdrawn the 10% customs duty imposed on battery, charter and headsets for mobile phones. The local manufacturers had sought this rollback after pleading lack of domestic suppliers of these items.

  Apart from the customs duty that was brought down to 0 from 10%, special additional duty of 4% charged on these items has also been taken away. But the counter-valuing duty (CVD) of 12.5% will continue to be imposed on mobile accessories.

  The government also rolled back the 2% customs duty set on imported printed circuit boards (PCBs) necessary for mobile phone manufacture.

  

  19th May 2016