Skip to main content

Passengers can soon use app to pay customs duty at IGI

Android app ready reckoner on rules, has duty calculator, works offline
Soon the passengers coming to Delhi from international destinations can pay the customs duty and fill the customs form and declare costly items through their mobile phone.Customs, which has recently launched a mobile-based application to inform people about all Indian customs rules including those related to import of pets and goods, will add these services in the app.
The main reason behind developing such an application was inaccessibility of customs-related information to common people with ease. “The mobile app’ Indian customs – guide to travelers, has been developed by Sandeep Rawal, who is joint director in regional training institute. The app contains details of baggage rules and entitlement of passengers,” said a customs official.
The application, developed in easy-to-understand format, gives in detail information about customs rules for Indians and foreigners. The application also has duty calculator. “Every passenger is allowed to bring baggage on the basis of three parameters - age, number of days stayed abroad and the port of embarkation. On giving the answers to these three questions by clicking yes/no option the passenger will know the specific allowance available to him. Moreover, it gives the list of prohibited goods and some procedural aspects of frequently asked goods,” the official added.
The contact details of various airports are also available in the app. In future customs will add facilities of filling the customs declaration form, payment of duty and issuance of online export certificate through the app.
“Once installed, the app can work in offline mode which means during the journey, when passengers are not allowed to use mobile network, they can still check rules through the app. We have changed the format of customs declaration, form and whenever we decide to make any more changes, we can simply update the app,” the official further said.
Apart from asking basic questions such as countries visited in last six days and total value of dutiable goods being imported, customs has put nine questions in category called ‘Are you bringing the following items into India?’ in the customs form. In those nine questions, passenger has to declare if he/she is carrying gold jewellery, gold bar, meat products, satellite phone and Indian or foreign currency.
Hindustan Times, New Delhi, 8th Feb. 2016

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Data storage norm splits digital payments industry

Data storage norm splits digital payments industry  India’s nascent digital payment industry could be thrown into disarray due to the demand by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that all user data be stored within the country, fears an industry grouping, which has termed the decision as “heavy-handed”, even as others, including the country’s largest digital payment provider Paytm, have hailed the move.  In a bid to narrow the growing schism, the industry is planning to send a formal representation to the regulator highlighting its concerns, a top official told ET.  “We are trying to build a consensus on the issue," said the person adding that the representation to the central bank will be ready this week.  RBI on April 6, mandated all payment companies—global and local—to set up data storage facilities within India by October. The stringent six-month deadline has attracted the ire of several sections of the industry that fear it will lead to a disruption of wel...

Sebi to finalise options in commodities today

The Commodity Derivatives Advisory Committee of the Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi) will meet on Friday with senior officials of the latter, to give a final shape to the rules on options trading in commodity futures, beside revising the warehousing norms to ensure good delivery on settlement. The decision taken, after discussing with the advisory committee, will be placed before the regulator’s board, to finalise the regulations. According to knowledgeable sources, three commodities in each segment, agricultural and non- agricultural, have been proposed for introducing options. It appears commodities from the soya and guar segments are preferred in the former. From the non- agri segment, it is likely that gold, silver and crude oil will be finalised. All these These have better liquidity and both the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange and the Multi Commodity Exchange, respectively, will be able to introduce the options. In the equity segments, options ar...

E tailers global warehouses may come under tax net

E tailers  global warehouses may come under tax net Warehouses of e-commerce companies based in countries such as Australia, Japan, Italy,  Spain, the Netherlands, and Russia may not be exempted from paying the income tax in India  once the multilateral instrument (MLI) to prevent base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS)  comes into force. BEPS refers to the reporting framework mooted by the Organisation for Economic  Co-operation and Development (OECD) and signed by over 100 countries, including India, to  prevent exploiting gaps and mismatches in tax rules to shift profits by multinational  companies (MNCs) artificially to low-tax regimes. The representatives of 68 countries on June 7 this year signed an agreement (MLI) in Paris  to amend their tax treaties to bring them in alignment with measures to prevent BEPS.  However, there is still time for synchronising tax treaties with the multilateral  instrument. India has submitte...