TheSeeker
Well-Known Member
Hello everyone!
today aft'noon i received a letter through speed-post, from the customs deptt. of mumbai (letter is dated 19th of april; no delay) saying that my so-and-so parcel has been detained for examination at the centre, and am required to furnish some documents to lay claim on it. also, the letter has matter in length about what all items/value is permitted for duty-exclusion (personal use items, gift items and all that). obviously am new to this
now a bit of background. i have ordered few stuff, valuing more than 10k in the past from amazon USA, but never got stuck in customs-'rituals'. this logitech SBT i had ordered on amazon Japan, and gave the address for delivery to a warehouse in Tokyo, from where it was collected by vPost. for onward delivery to India (via Singapore), i paid the shipping amount to vPost through my paypal account, and then the parcel travelled from Japan >> Singapore >> Mumbai, and now is stuck with the customs deptt
i have shot off an email to vPost Singapore asking whether their courier service would be handling the issue or i myself have to. but their response is not something to be praised about, and i wont get any reply before monday noon.
from whatever i have gathered from google, i understand that i will have to mail them the required documents, alongwith a letter stating my intent of usage 'truthfully'
, whereupon, the deptt. officials would calculate the duty to be paid, & then send a postman to my address who would collect the duty & deliver the shipment to me. is this the way it happens? kindly enlighten me. also, if anyone could be gracious enough to tell me what & how the letter of intent should be written, or give me a copy of his own letter he might've written sometime back, i would be very much grateful to you 
also, i underwent a surgery recently, & walking/travelling is not permitted to me for a few days. hence i can only mail them the documents & the letter, otherwise the letter also states that 'you are welcome to visit the office in person on working days between 1500-1600 hrs', which i wont be able to do. time-limit provided to me is 15 days. so please suggest me friends how should i tackle this. the documents asked for are :
1. Import/Export Code (IEC) [What's this?]
2. Commercial Invoice [i have the amazon e-invoice]
3. Proof of payment/remittance [again, what will be this?]
4. Evidence of value [clueless again]
5. Purchase bill [how can i furnish this?]
kindly suggest. thanks in advance.
P.S. - If anyone needs to see the letter, pls write if i should scan it and upload it here.
today aft'noon i received a letter through speed-post, from the customs deptt. of mumbai (letter is dated 19th of april; no delay) saying that my so-and-so parcel has been detained for examination at the centre, and am required to furnish some documents to lay claim on it. also, the letter has matter in length about what all items/value is permitted for duty-exclusion (personal use items, gift items and all that). obviously am new to this

now a bit of background. i have ordered few stuff, valuing more than 10k in the past from amazon USA, but never got stuck in customs-'rituals'. this logitech SBT i had ordered on amazon Japan, and gave the address for delivery to a warehouse in Tokyo, from where it was collected by vPost. for onward delivery to India (via Singapore), i paid the shipping amount to vPost through my paypal account, and then the parcel travelled from Japan >> Singapore >> Mumbai, and now is stuck with the customs deptt

i have shot off an email to vPost Singapore asking whether their courier service would be handling the issue or i myself have to. but their response is not something to be praised about, and i wont get any reply before monday noon.
from whatever i have gathered from google, i understand that i will have to mail them the required documents, alongwith a letter stating my intent of usage 'truthfully'


also, i underwent a surgery recently, & walking/travelling is not permitted to me for a few days. hence i can only mail them the documents & the letter, otherwise the letter also states that 'you are welcome to visit the office in person on working days between 1500-1600 hrs', which i wont be able to do. time-limit provided to me is 15 days. so please suggest me friends how should i tackle this. the documents asked for are :
1. Import/Export Code (IEC) [What's this?]
2. Commercial Invoice [i have the amazon e-invoice]
3. Proof of payment/remittance [again, what will be this?]
4. Evidence of value [clueless again]
5. Purchase bill [how can i furnish this?]
kindly suggest. thanks in advance.
P.S. - If anyone needs to see the letter, pls write if i should scan it and upload it here.