The government is considering amending its rules to completely remove the provision under which citizens can receive duty-free ‘gifts and samples’ valued at under Rs 5,000 from overseas, after finding its rampant misuse by Chinese ecommerce vendors, senior officials ET spoke to said.
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBITC), which formulates policy concerning levy and collection of customs, was considering a cap on the number of gifts an individual can receive, but has decided against it given the complexity in its implementation. “There were multiple legal options we were looking at, one being limiting the number (of gifts) to four per individual. But to implement this practically would be difficult, so we’re looking at a policy that prohibits the clearance of gifts altogether,” said a senior government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
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The customs department began cracking down on ecommerce imports masquerading as gifts in November last year. Starting this year, an approach to block the clearance of such packages across all express cargo ports was adopted, leading to a massive drop in the number of gifts coming into the country. The official said all the three major express cargo ports in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, which constitute 90% of such imports, had blocked clearance of gifts.
Source: Economic Times
