481. Taking gold to India when

visiting India | Taking jewelery to

India

Questions: Good morning Virendarji, My name is Manisha Shah. My friends told me that there are stricter rules about carrying gold to India now than till last year. I looked into the article http://nriinformation.com/faq_two/faq_page106.ht m and I did find the valuable information. My question is what I just take my jewelry 1. Just to wear it and bring it back? eg. going for some functions. Can they write it down in my passport of what I am taking and that I am bringing same things back? 2. What if I want to remake something new from my old jewelry? I will appreciate you getting back to me with answers on this. thanks a lot. Manisha Shah Answer: Many people have the same questions as you and recent news reports have made many NRIs nervous about taking gold jewelery to India and being forced to pay customs duty there. My wife and I have just returned from India after a eight week visit and we did not encounter any difficulties with customs in Mumbai about the gold necklace and bangles my wife was wearing. To answer your questions, for items taken into India temporarily for a visitors personal use and re-exported when they leave India, Customs officials do have the authority to document such items and make an endorsement on the passengers passport to ensure they are re- exported out or duty paid when the passenger leaves India. It is easy to identify and document items such as for example a video recorder or camera because they normally have a model number/serial number, however, when it comes to jewelery items such identification does not normally exist. In such a scenario, customs officers may decide to detain the jewelery items and return it to the passenger when they leave India. To avoid problems with customs officials at Indian airports when it comes to jewelry taken to India, consider getting an appraisal done abroad. The appraiser will provide a photo of the jewelry item in question along with details such as gold content, weight etc. This appraisal should be carried with the passenger and may help convince the Indian customs officers that you would re-export the items. Furthermore, once you have the appraisal done, you can get a card made from the customs authorities of your home country so as to avoid problems when you return home with the jewelry. Regarding your question of remaking of old jewelry, most foreign countries when it comes to gold jewelry, will charge customs duty on the remade jewelry as if it was an entirely new item. To clarify further, you could take gold from USA to India to get jewelry made there. When you return, duty payable would be calculated on the full appraised price and even though the gold was taken from USA it will be subject to duty.

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taken to India

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