CBEC’s ambiguous clarification on gifts from abroad- (Ministry of Finance ) (11 Apr 2016)

MANU/CUST/0044/2016

Customs

The Central Board of Excise and Customs threw the baby out with the bathwater with its latest memo to customs and excise Chief Commissioners. As anyone who has attempted to courier a gift item from a foreign country to India will know, it may never see its intended recipient in India. In fact, couriers abroad have started to flatly refuse transporting gift consignments to India due to the likelihood of it being not cleared by the Department. To correct such a mala fide situation, it released a instructions to Commissioners to follow “extant instructions on import of bonafide gift items”. Is it in admittance that rules have not been followed? Or is the closed chest of rules too like pandora’s box.

Tags : CUSTOMS GIFT COURIER FOREIGN COUNTRY