Hyderabad Customs : Container Clearance

Happy Birthday G and H!!! ...

The most dreaded time of receiving the goods has arrived. .. thanks to the excellent work done by my packers and the unloaders.. I am happy to report that everything made it without a single dent or scratch..

The customs clearance process has 3 steps followed by unloading and unpacking.

1. Destuffing of the container and 24 hr cooling off period
2. Examination and Duty Payment [ Officer will go through the boxes and estimate the duty on the items he thinks are dutiable ]
3. Delivery / Release [ Once duty is paid, they release your items to the delivery agent ]
4. Unloading at the House
5. Unpacking [ I did not sign up for this service.. since I had extra help at home ]

Tip1 : dont get into this on your own, have a 2 to 3 helpers along with you to make this easy. Too many things will happen at once and with 10 unloaders working on your consignment, its very likely they will drop, drag and do everything possible. Remember its a fixed price contract for them..

Tip2 : Have an excellent packing list, try not to put a value in there if possible but do highlight the year and model for electronics since it makes it easy to negotiate the value of the items while the officer is inspecting

Tip3 : All labor groups have an expectation of a tip, so talk to them before they start the work and set the expecation of a better tip if the work was done to your satisfaction. I spent 1200 Rs of tips for destuffing, loading and unloading and it was well worth it since they put in extra time and effort to do it right.

Tip4 : This was a very obvious risk that the inspector was taking by randomly inspecting the boxes, by law they are supposed to look through all boxes.. Do not bring alcohol, but if you do, it may be wise to declare it. My inspector asked me multiple times about it and indicated that his colleague has been reprimanded recently when a box with bottles was dropped by the loaders and was caught by the warehouse security before it left.

Overall, the customs inspectors were very friendly but lazy, they were so busy reading the newspaper until they got a call to expedite my container release..

... Now to the story.. ;-)

On wednesday, it was the ganesh nimajjanam and the shipping agent indicated that it may be a better idea to go to ICD ( Inland Container Depot ) located in the moosapet area on thursday. Destuffing was planned for wednesday but we were unable to find the labor or the officers that could sign off on breaking the container seal due to the holiday in Hyderabad. Due to other plans I had for thursday, I scheduled our family driver as my proxy [ a real task master ] to represent me at the destuffing area. Destuffing took around 3 hours, and he offered them a bonus ahead of time in return for not dropping boxes or dragged the furniture on the warehouse floor. Everything went well, and the unloaders even put some extra blankets below the furniture in the warehouse to earn their bonus etc.

Friday was the day for examination and duty payment. The Assistant commissioner who was responsible for the office was on leave and the rest of the office decided to show up late. I went in at my scheduled time of 11:30 and no one showed up until 12:30. At 12:30, I couldnt take it anymore and called a family member who knows a few higher ups in the customs department and after a few calls, everything started to move on its own, with everyone taking extra initiative to get things closed asap.

I had 3 helpers with me who were responsible for keeping their eyes on the consignment and the parallel processes. During examination, all boxes will be opened, doesnt matter what's in it. So, I left 2 of my helpers to watch the labor that was working to get the consignment ready for inspection. This included lining up the boxes in a row and opening them so that the customs official can look into the boxes randomly. While this was going on, I sat with the examination officer and identified which boxes had the items I wanted to declare, primarily electronics and valuables. They were not worried about used furniture or clothes.

One important tip is to create a very detailed packing list while the container is being loaded. It helped me a lot since all the boxes with electronics were marked with a E, the official had an easy time finding them and estimating the values etc.. Also note the year and model if possible in packing list, so that they can estimate it faster. I had to pay 15000+ in duty, which was much lower than I expected.. [ considering I had good bit of electronic stuff with me .. ]. In some cases, the customs agent looked through cases that had very basic items to make sure that it really had what is listed in the packing list. He stressed on the importance of not taking the risk with hidden alcohol multiple times and then signed off on the duty estimate. Rest of the process was handled by my helpers, they paid the challan in the extension counter of ICD, got the Assistant commissioners signature for release and then loaded up the container into 3 DCM trucks.

Trucks reached home at around 9pm, due to a union stipulated dinner break between 7:30 - 8:30 for the unloaders. While my team watched and made sure that nothing was being dropped or dragged by the unloaders, all items were brought into the house [ 1st floor ]. One challenge was with our 3 seater Leather sofa, that would not fit in the stairwell. They left it for the night in my neighbors house and returned in the morning to lift it through the balcony. Since I did not sign up for the unpacking service, I utilized my helpers to unpack the furniture and other major items, which produced a ton of waste ( 80 wrapping blankets + 100 empty boxes ) on the first day itself.

Overall, it was a tedious process, but leveraging your contacts for the right purpose [ Due to the audits around ICD, they are willing to only get involved in expediting the process.. which I thought was fair.. ] and having extra help on hand can make this process easy.