Has anyone imported expensive speakers to India from Abroad recently?

[john_k_antony]

Hi,

Has anyone imported expensive speakers from abroad recently. By expensive I mean a price of $6000/pair including shipping.

What is the final import and customs duty I need to pay as per the new norms? The government website says that the excise duty is 10% for speakers. But I know that we need to add additional taxes on top of it. I wanted to know the total tax for importing speakers.

I want to get the speakers delivered to Bangalore, India from US.

Any help on this regard will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
John.

 

[corElement]

Still getting the Zu omen def's? or changed your mind recently?

 

[john_k_antony]

Core,

Omen Defs are still on top of the list. Came across Rethm and Emerald Physics on the way . Planning to do an audition soon. Even if I am getting Omen Defs, I will directly get it from Sean and shipped to Bangalore via sea freight. I am doing this because I asked Sean for some cap mods on the Omen Def. So he agreed to make a custom pair for me if I am still interested in Omen Defs.

So I would like to know the customs charges. I don't want to get a heart attack when the speakers arrive in India and they rip me with customs and excise duty.

-John.

 

[corElement]

It is undoubtedly a difficult proposition.
I think you should message FM Bhagwan/santi, he has imported very expensive high end speakers over the last several years. He will give you exact information.

 

[odyssey]

The ZUs have an India dealer the last I know. If Zu, USA (or any region other than India) is shipping this to you directly, I would be really surprised. Have you tried approaching the dealer directly in Delhi?

In any case, duty is about 30% on cost of speakers + shipping. If no shipping amount is mentioned, they can typically charge up to 20% of cost of shipment as shipping charge. Please remember that it can totally vary, sometimes shipping charge may be taken as 0 too.

Sea freight is also more of a pain than air freight

cheers

 

[ranjeetrain]

I would like to know, too. Though I am not sure how this will be different for brand NEW vs OLD used speakers. Experiences of people who have done this in past would be very helpful.

 

[2chFreak]

Several of such products have been imported in the last 6-8 months that far, far exceeds the price limits indicated by the OP by owners who are very closely known to me.

The highest (Customs-duties + all taxes) in all sorts of names has NOT exceeded above 30% of the product's value. Most cases, approx. 26.6%.

Some pertinent points that may be useful are -
choice of Entry ports
nature & model of the product
overall size/volume of the packing
the Freight Forwarder & the customs-clearance agent

all make a difference in the end.

Busy Entry ports like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore & Chennai are recommended. Customs officers at the not-so-busy ports tend to be greedy.

If the exact product has already been imported, they will have a pricing of it on the Pan India databases. If not, then there's room for negotiations.

In most cases, its seen that Customs clearance agents usually strike a deal with the customs officers and though the importer ends up paying 26-30% duty, the actual duty officially paid to the Govt via challans is lesser. It has to be understood where the rest of THaT money went. Hence, such things always go on.

The more vague the product name, the better & more room for negotiations.

IEC is a must for the importer. Customs is also interested in the transaction details of the purchase.

 

[venk61176]

John,

If you have decided to import why not try Devore fidelity speakers. It's a popular match with leben and of course you can buy leben at reasonable cost from odyssey

Cheers
Venkat

 

[bhagwan]

Off the Hat - 30 % is the Cost - sans VAT [Customs Import Duty]
So it is not that bad, import & pay 100 % correct duty - there is no heart attack involved.
All the Best !

p.s. If there is a D & D in India, then maybe you should considering buying it from the D & D instead of a direct import...just my humble suggestion;

 

[srinisundar]

No need of IEC if you are importing directly in your name. No hassles thru Air freight.

I have brought my Thiel CS1.6 from Singapore thru Fedex. No hassles, just landed in my door with duty paid at almost 33-36%%( all surcharge included) of declared cost.

Declared value : 600SGD - Paid duty inbetween 8-9K..

Regards

 

[ranjeetrain]

How do the customs people deal with used gear? How do they evaluate the value to slap duty on? Do they have a policy? Or is it all negotiations?

 

[john_k_antony]

Was the customs okay with the declared value? Did they ask you for any additional documents?

 

[corElement]

How do the customs people deal with used gear? How do they evaluate the value to slap duty on? Do they have a policy? Or is it all negotiations?

I'm curious about this as well.

 

[srinisundar]

Was the customs okay with the declared value? Did they ask you for any additional documents?

Nope. I have asked the vendor to declare the value as 600SGD.. So it was treated as invoice in the customs declaration form. If the item is in hold by Indian customs will ask for supporting document from your end thru the shipper, prepare and submit.

It is prohibited to bring "Used electronic goods" to India by customs by Air freight or by sea. Just declare the product and bring neither mention used or new. You can bring as accompanied baggage.

 

[CeeKay]

You can bring as accompanied baggage.

I think the ideal option would be this, pay excess baggage charges and avoid shipping charges. But hey if you can't travel Air lift is the better option.

CK

 

[bhagwan]

I think the ideal option would be this, pay excess baggage charges and avoid shipping charges. But hey if you can't travel Air lift is the better option.
CK

This sounds like a perfect thing [to do], but the only issue is weight;
32kgs is limit, anything above that will not be allowed - I think.
So how does one get Heavy Speakers & Power Amplifiers into India ?:sad:

 

[corElement]

The weight limit depends airline to airline and class to class from what I know. I went by economic class to the US on air china and my weight limit was 22.2kg x2, if I went first class it would have been 27.2kg.

The concert 8 bookshelves I got back were 12.6 kg, the suitcases themselves were around 4kg so thats 12.6+4= 16.6 kg which left about 4 kg of usable weight. Out of which 1.5 lg was used up by packaging for the bookshelf speaker (one of the speakers still still damaged despite considerable stuffing, hard & soft. So basically I had 2 suitcases which had just about 3kg of usable weight after putting in 12.6kg bookshelf speaker pair in them with packaging.

It was very hectic and difficult to pack aswell as if I went over the weight limit, I would have been charged 10,000 Rs. I do not suggest getting something back in a suitcase if it is more than 10kg or has a depth deeper than 9 inches.

 

[ranjeetrain]

Some airlines used to allow two checked-in luggage of up to 32kg each, plus whatever you could hand carry (within the limits of decency) in economy class.

Those were the days.

 

[Desire]

John, didnt you decide on the Jamo D600 Before? Why did you change your mind?

 

[john_k_antony]

This is for my stereo setup. Was considering Emerald Physics CS2.3 MKII as one of the option. BTW Jamo D600 was for Home Theater .