Custom duty discussion on blu-rays imported

crossbow

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So lately customs have started to charge min 33% duty for almost all amazon UK blu-ray orders placed by us. And specially this is happening from September.

And if this trend continues it's gonna get costly for us to import blu-rays from amazon UK, which is like safe heaven for cheap blu-rays.

So lets share each others experience on what we ordered from amazon UK and how much customs got charged.

I also know that this may be temporary, and it all depends upon customs person.

But this will help us if like in month of September all parcels are charged duty, we can avoid importing stuff for some time. This will also help us if one person ordered the stuff which other person is also gonna order, then he can get some estimate that how much duty may be charged.

Now some fact from SnS on custom duty on Blu-rays.
1) Custom duty on Blu-ray is 27% as per their latest customs duty document which they give to their SnS account subscribers. (Also this keeps on changing from time to time)
2) Additional to that duty there is some 120 bucks charge for some form which they need to fill.
3) And there is some tax, which i do not remember exactly. I will update the same later.

Let me share my Last 3 orders from UK.
1) Speed racer + Super 8. Total 14.52 gbp including shipping. Duty charged was 430 bucks. So like 33%.
2) Watchman. Total 8.56 gbp including shipping. Duty charged was 252 bucks. again like 33%
3) One steelbook came through SnS. Custom cleared. No duty charged. From play.com

Imp : This is not SnS thread. If you have any queries we have dedicated SnS thread. Please post there. T
IMP : This thread is for only Blu-rays imported and duty charged. For other stuff please use appropriate section.

EDIT: And ya guys share your location too. Mine is Hyderabad.
 
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Have recieved 3 packages (each with 3 box sets) in September only with no customs(Postman took Rs. 5 each for the package though, :p). I hope it stays this way for me. Scary thought to pay 33% for BRs as well.
I will still go the direct route, since with PO there is still a chance to get the package with no customs. But SnS always charges customs these days. Even when my package was worth only 10$ they charged me somethign similar as customs.
 
my last 3 purchases

ordered on 3rd Sep, 11 th Sep delivered, GBP 41.63, 5 BDs, no duty
ordered on 30th July, never reached me, got refund on 15th Aug
ordered on 6th June, delivered on 17th June, 36.84 GBP, 4 BDs, no duty

In fact till now I have purchased around 30 BDs from amazon UK and was never charged duty
 
Last two times, I was charged nearly 43% duty. I have now stopped ordering from Amazon because the average price of BD has now jumped from Rs. 750 to Rs. 1000.

SnS does not work out cheaper either because:

- their shipping charges are little more than Amazon (not confirmed but assumed)
- by addressing to a UK SnS address, we miss out on 20% VAT refund
- even with lesser (27%) customs duty, the whole deal works expensive

Flipkart has (english/hollywood) BDs from Rs. 799 to Rs. 1500. Those in the 800~1000 range work out same as Amazon,UK or cheaper.
 
That's Nice akd and banik. Hope it stays the same for you guys. Where are you guys located? All my aug, july orders were duty free. These last 2 orders from amazon only I had to pay duty.

I use SnS for any non amazon shopping only. Specially steelbooks. All my 3 orders are cleared duty free by them till now. But yes everytime I have paid shipping charges of 630 bucks (10 usd + 12.35% tax) on each parcel. So definitely they are costly, but for getting stuff from sites like play.com (steelbooks), hmv only SnS option is available.

Borderlinx is there, but their calculation method for shipping charges is pretty duh, coz they calculate everytimes by volumetric weight, which proves more costly then SnS. It may be cheaper for big items, may be. But definitely costlier for BDs and stuff.

Other option is ICCworld, which I do not have experience with.
 
I recently got Harry Potter Bluray Boxset from amazon uk for 35gbp inc shipping and was not charged customs. I choose standard shipping only.
 
NCR customs are also great.

Touch wood !! Never charged for all BluRay items I bought from Amazon UK.
Still awaiting few items to be delivered. Wish it remains the same way.

I even don't know who actually deliver these items. (so, no chance of bribing to postman either)
I have given my office address for delivery. Security staff collects and office courier guy calls me later and I collect :)

But I'm more interested in knowing the terms & conditions on which basis customs charges are applied on these small value items as well !!
AFAIK, Govt. has decided custom duty exemption up to the items Rs. 35000;
then why customs charges on such smaller items, which cost 1K, 2K...5K...7K...only ????
 
well mumbai and nearby people are getting slapped with customs , specially me , mostly all my parcel have been charged 41.42% ya even for 9 or 10 pound order .

one thing i decided to order those movies which are not available in india like chinatown ,zodiac or any such , or collectors stuff like steelbooks or digibooks if they are cheap. or box set of 5 to 8 movies or combo packs like blu ray + dvd if its same price in india.
any of the above if necessary.
if its single release available in both like the thing or thin red line or longest day get from india where its cheap.
 
But I'm more interested in knowing the terms & conditions on which basis customs charges are applied on these small value items as well !!
AFAIK, Govt. has decided custom duty exemption up to the items Rs. 35000;
then why customs charges on such smaller items, which cost 1K, 2K...5K...7K...only ????

You are mistaking 35k duty exemption that is given for travelers as a general duty exemption. 35k is for travelers who are returning from countries abroad. That does not apply to imported items. There is an exemption for gifts up to 5k. But apparently merchandise purchased abroad and marked as gift to self does not really qualify. Some city customs are ignoring this and thus users are benefiting; some unfortunate ones like us are not. :(

Sent from my GT-I9100G using Tapatalk 2
 
You are mistaking 35k duty exemption that is given for travelers as a general duty exemption. 35k is for travelers who are returning from countries abroad. That does not apply to imported items. There is an exemption for gifts up to 5k. But apparently merchandise purchased abroad and marked as gift to self does not really qualify. Some city customs are ignoring this and thus users are benefiting; some unfortunate ones like us are not. :(

Sent from my GT-I9100G using Tapatalk 2

true :) Now i have to plan to shift my base to banglore or ncr for this :p or ship my movies to friends living there and ask them to courier me :lol:
 
Mumbai customs suck!! they are charging whooping 42%...i am being charged for 10 pounds too!!
42% is jus too much...

burn custom ppl!!
 
I think the rule for marking any shipment as Gift is that it has to be sent by someone who is living outside India. So if we order something from Amazon where shipping and billing address are the same, it doesn't qualify as gift. But yeah sometime we get lucky when the customs guys don't look at this :)

I had some weird instances while ordering electrics items from amazon.us and uk. Both these instances Amazon collected the custom duty while ordering and refunded the complete amount saying no customs was paid :) How about that !! In some cases Amazon refunded partial amount saying the custom duty was less, but most of the cases i was not lucky....
 

But I'm more interested in knowing the terms & conditions on which basis customs charges are applied on these small value items as well !!
AFAIK, Govt. has decided custom duty exemption up to the items Rs. 35000;
then why customs charges on such smaller items, which cost 1K, 2K...5K...7K...only ????

I stopped ordering from Amazon after having to pay duty on each and every shipment. Frustrated I had a talk with the customs officer who is housed right opposite my office. He showed me the Customs Rule book which stated that any mail order items from abroad are charged a flat rate of 35% + 5% duty. I asked the part about the "marked as gift thing" and he said if its from a commercial retailer like amazon they do charge duty nevertheless. However if the package is from a person and marked as a gift & under the value of Rs.10,000 no duty is charged.

So ultimately my BD's cost way more than that over here. Really hate watching the censored version though.:D
 
Friends: when you buy from non-indian ecommerce site, say amazon uk or germany, how do you make payments ? by credit card ? if so does credit card company charge you separately for this ?

Sanket
 
Friends: when you buy from non-indian ecommerce site, say amazon uk or germany, how do you make payments ? by credit card ? if so does credit card company charge you separately for this ?

Sanket

Yeah, we can pay by Visa/Mastercard debit or credit card.
Credit card company charges a small amount (varying between 1.5 to 2.5% of charged amount in Foreign currency).
But still..most of the time...the total cost actually comes lesser than the Bluray items available in India.
If we compare the product quality, Indian discs are mostly censored and they come in very low quality thin Bluray box. All the UK Bluray comes in efficient packaging with excellent quality covers/slipcovers/boxes.
 
Friends: when you buy from non-indian ecommerce site, say amazon uk or germany, how do you make payments ? by credit card ? if so does credit card company charge you separately for this ?

Sanket

Currently, I am paying thru my nose. :D

Sent from my GT-I9100G using Tapatalk 2
 
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