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Custom duty on fountain pen inks.


HartGummi

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I have heard very different things from people.

Some say they had to pay the standard duty (roughly %40) which gets slapped on anything that gets bought, others got their inks without getting flagged by customs at all.

I looked around a bit to find the duty on pen inks in particular.  The stipulated duties are much less than 40 %. 

 

If you have imported inks several times then please share you experience.  Online retailers seem to be ripping the customer off even after taking shipping charges and duties into account.

 

Is trying to import inks (Noodler's in my case) worth the hassle and the price? 

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Depends. Dunno where you live do we?

 

That aside it often depends upon the packaging. If it looks obviously commercial it will  get sent of to Mr Customs. Better to go with small retailers.

 

Also think about amortizing the cost of the ink over the life of the bottle, which can often be several years.

Add lightness and simplicate.

 

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1 hour ago, Karmachanic said:

Depends. Dunno where you live do we?

 

I thought regional focus would have made it obvious.

 

1 hour ago, Karmachanic said:

Also think about amortizing the cost of the ink over the life of the bottle, which can often be several years.

It is one reason why I am not averse to buying larger bottles, but when ink is being sold for four or five times the base price then facing custom officials doesn't seem so bad.

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1 minute ago, HartGummi said:

I thought regional focus would have made it obvious.

It wasn't obvious to me. 🙁

Is buying Noodler's ink with taxes and duties added worth the expense to you?

Consider trying some of your fabulous Krishna inks.

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37 minutes ago, HartGummi said:

thought regional focus would have made it obvious.

 

‘India & Subcontinent (Asia)’ includes all or part of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, as well as Maldives. Somehow I don't think customs duty and regulations are identical for all those countries.

 

I endeavour to be frank and truthful in what I write, show or otherwise present, when I relate my first-hand experiences that are not independently verifiable; and link to third-party content where I can, when I make a claim or refute a statement of fact in a thread. If there is something you can verify for yourself, I entreat you to do so, and judge for yourself what is right, correct, and valid. I may be wrong, and my position or say-so is no more authoritative and carries no more weight than anyone else's here.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've paid 48% customs on inks every time I've ordered. I hope some day they reduce customs and allow free trade. Till then we're ****ed. Another workaround is to buy inks from a small retailer and have them mark down the prices on the shipping manifest.

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Personally I gave up on what I can't get in terms of inks from locally or online and well when it comes to price, some offer better value over others, many blatantly rip off as you said. The real problem I personally face is availability of ink which I want to get...for example sailors and platinum's pigment inks look to be out of stock from entire indian online...... noodler are something I rarely see on proper budget in India.

 

If someone knows few less known sources for inks it might help.

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27 minutes ago, Dimy said:

If someone knows few less known sources for inks it might help.

Noodler's is available at Penspoint in Delhi. Don't know the prices but they cannot be worse than what we see online.

 

Thankfully we can buy Diamine at moderate cost. 

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17 hours ago, Dimy said:

Personally I gave up on what I can't get in terms of inks from locally or online and well when it comes to price, some offer better value over others, many blatantly rip off as you said. The real problem I personally face is availability of ink which I want to get...for example sailors and platinum's pigment inks look to be out of stock from entire indian online...... noodler are something I rarely see on proper budget in India.

 

If someone knows few less known sources for inks it might help.

 

I have a new bottle of Platinum Carbon Black if you need it.

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8 hours ago, Saurabh D said:

 

I have a new bottle of Platinum Carbon Black if you need it.

Thank you for such a kind gesture but I would refrain at the moment. I managed to secure sailor kiwaguro few weeks ago and have some carbon black left (1/4th I think).

 

What I was looking for was sailor seiboku blue ink and while searching I realised they were unavailable everywhere, which made me realise that all of pigment inks are gone from indian retailers (thus my statement). Well was fun to look for them (pain in other way).

 

Thanks again for the offer.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Private couriers such as DHL and FedEx Cross Borders do not let the package pass through customs in the destination country. They themselves calculate the custom - which is almost always wrong. In cases ten times higher than the actual - and impose their decision on the receiver. 

 

Royal Mail, USPS and other official Postal services would just hand over the parcel to the local Postal service in the destination country who would let the parcel pass through custom scan and leave it for the Custom authorities to decide as to whether the item is or is not taxable. And if taxable, to determine the amount to be paid as custom duty. 

 

I do not buy item(s) if in case the seller has the only option of private couriers such as DHL, FedEx etc.

Khan M. Ilyas

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On 2/19/2021 at 12:25 AM, mitto said:

Private couriers such as DHL and FedEx Cross Borders do not let the package pass through customs in the destination country. They themselves calculate the custom - which is almost always wrong. In cases ten times higher than the actual - and impose their decision on the receiver. 

 

Royal Mail, USPS and other official Postal services would just hand over the parcel to the local Postal service in the destination country who would let the parcel pass through custom scan and leave it for the Custom authorities to decide as to whether the item is or is not taxable. And if taxable, to determine the amount to be paid as custom duty. 

 

I do not buy item(s) if in case the seller has the only option of private couriers such as DHL, FedEx etc.

 

No. The packages go through customs. They pay the customs fees. Then, they charge you the customs fee, handling fee, plus taxes.

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1 hour ago, Saurabh D said:

 

No. The packages go through customs. They pay the customs fees. Then, they charge you the customs fee, handling fee, plus taxes.

 

No. It doesn't. But if you are willing to pay ten times more than the actual duty, go for DHL and/or for FedEx Cross Borders. 

Khan M. Ilyas

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On 2/19/2021 at 5:55 AM, mitto said:

Private couriers such as DHL and FedEx Cross Borders do not let the package pass through customs in the destination country.

 

Wait … so which party reviews the official customs declaration paperwork submitted to the Government, and if it so decides, physically inspect the contents of the consignments? You seem to be suggesting that the Customs authority in your country has no right and no access to the consignments to officially inspect them where appropriate, if they are sent via services such as DHL.

 

‘Customs’ is not just, or even primarily, about money — especially not from the individual consumer/recipient's point of view, even if it's important to collecting revenue for the Government — but controlling what is allowed into the country.

I endeavour to be frank and truthful in what I write, show or otherwise present, when I relate my first-hand experiences that are not independently verifiable; and link to third-party content where I can, when I make a claim or refute a statement of fact in a thread. If there is something you can verify for yourself, I entreat you to do so, and judge for yourself what is right, correct, and valid. I may be wrong, and my position or say-so is no more authoritative and carries no more weight than anyone else's here.

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