Importing Your Baggage in India

Customs is a kind of firewall that every article has to pass through when it is imported in India. Customs is a department of Government of India so the normal rules of getting business done at a typical government office apply. This time my unaccompanied baggage was about 300 kilos. I had stuffed that 300 kilos in 16 cardboard boxes that arrived in a reasonably good condition to India by KLM flight 871 from Amsterdam. The 300 kilos were mainly food items, books, used toys and some electronic items. It took about 5 hours to get that stuff cleared from the customs. Overall experience was better than the last time because there were two inspectors to inspect the baggage. This speeded up the whole process. There were fewer consignees waiting to clear their baggage so it did not take long to get my stuff cleared. I paid Rs 700 customs duty on my old used artifacts. Additionally I paid Rs 3500 as “service charge” to the agent and 1200 for transporting the boxes to Gurgaon in a small truck. I am not sure whether it was the “service charge” or something else made Indian customs friendly to me.