just read through the entire page, for me delay was never the issue, as some of these items are not and probably never will be available locally, but the customs duty calculation was always the problem.

I don’t mind paying the legal import duty of these items, but don’t want to be at the mercy of whoever generates the final payment amount (must be some group B officials in some govt building), as is the case with your 20000/- fixed bracket for all Blackberrys. I’m pretty sure that the process to get that amount adjusted to the actual cost of the item will involve huge amounts of red tape, running here and there and lots of ass kissing sarkari people.

So, I tried to find an alternative, 20north runs this kind of customs clearing agency, where they mention the total cost for the item+shipping+duty upfront. They also let you send them a link for any item on any US site and order it for you. Price looks steep sometimes, but I never looked up the ITO schedule to find out any discrepancies.

The only great thing is that you know that you don’t have to pay anything extra to anyone (except octroi, as in my city) other than the upfront cost. Of course 20north will also be making a profit here.

for ref: I bought one Pure Komachi santoku knife, total cost came to 1400, delivery was within 20 days, 20north sourced this item from an Amazon listing and Amazon was the source.

There are also a few power sellers on ebay.in that carry listings of US items, and you pay by standard ebay paisa pay terms, but never tried them. Also, their price seems decided on demand rather than on the actual USD price of the item.

Did the customs charge any duty on the 3 phones you received as a gift?

–Harshad.

I am also thinking of telling a friend to buy a cell phone in US and shipping it to me, could you pls tell me a few things?

1. How much is the UPS shipping charge roughly?
2. What about customs, were you required to pay any custom duty? If yes, how much?
3. To whom did you pay the duty?

–Harshad.

“Out of Foreign Customs, February 12, 2011, 11:36 pm, INDIA
Out of Foreign Customs, February 12, 2011, 2:23 pm, INDIA
Into Foreign Customs, February 12, 2011, 10:33 am, INDIA
Arrived Abroad, February 12, 2011, 10:05 am, INDIA
International Dispatch, February 08, 2011, 1:55 pm, ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS)
Arrival”

Out of Foreign Customs, February 12, 2011, 11:36 pm, INDIA
Out of Foreign Customs, February 12, 2011, 2:23 pm, INDIA
Into Foreign Customs, February 12, 2011, 10:33 am, INDIA
Arrived Abroad, February 12, 2011, 10:05 am, INDIA
International Dispatch, February 08, 2011, 1:55 pm, ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS)
Arrival