New customs form for India-bound fliers from January 1

BY A STAFF WRITER,

CHICAGO: Passengers flying to India will have to fill in a new customs form on their arrival from the new year while the need to fill immigration form for returning Indians is being done away with.

All passengers going to India will be filling up an ‘Indian Customs Declaration Form’ that will be different from the detachable perforated strip which is part of the immigration card now.

“There will be a separate form for customs authorities and immigration card from the new year onwards,” official sources said.

Also from January 1, Indians will have to fill up immigration form only when they go out. There will not be any immigration form for Indians returning from abroad.

Authorities have also introduced new fields for declaration of dutiable and prohibited goods.

For the first time, travellers would be asked to specifically declare any prohibited articles, gold jewellery (over free allowance), gold bullion and Indian currency exceeding Rs 7,500 in the new form.

Unlike earlier, the passengers will have to give details of countries visited in the past six days and mention their passport numbers on the new form.

Whereas old fields like declaration of satellite phone, foreign currency exceeding $5,000 or equivalent, aggregate value of foreign exchange including currency exceeding $10,000 or equivalent, meat, meat products, dairy products, fish or poultry products and seeds, plants, fruits, flowers and other planting material have been retained in the new format.