Q.890 467 gr gold seized on Delhi

airport form NRI Lady - What to

do?

nri lady coming from dubai wearing four kadas weigt 467 gr of gold walking from green channel detain by customs and they seize her gold .but she is not smugller she wants her gold back she is not permanent living in india her all faimly is in dubai. please tell answer Ganesh Kumar Answer: Taking 467 grams of gold is way over the allowed limit of Rupees one lakh duty free allowance on gold jewelry for women passengers arriving in India. As per rules, failure to declare in contravention of rules can lead to seizure of goods, fines and even prosecution [depending on the value] at the discretion of the customs authorities. If a passenger claims to have not known about the reporting requirement and the customs officer believes that the passenger indeed did make a mistake in not declaring, then perhaps, only the applicable duty would be charged. However claiming ignorance may be difficult these days as the new entry forms to be filled by passengers arriving in India, require that passengers must specifically declare any prohibited articles, gold jewelry (over free allowance), gold bullion and Indian currency exceeding the allowed limit [now Rs. 25,000.] [Sample declaration form is available at: http://www.travelindiasmart.com/index_htm_files /Arrival_form_india.pdf ] If the lady in question: did not understand the rules when reading/filling the declaration form had no intention of leaving the gold jewelry in India and would have taken the jewelry back when returning to Dubai And had no intention of cheating the system and the non-declaration was an unintentional error on her part. Then perhaps she should try and discuss with the customs authorities the circumstances that led to the seizure of her jewelry and request release of the seized items. All said and done the decision would be that of the customs authorities and would depend on how they perceive the facts of this case.