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No change in gold allowance to India: Consulate official Sajila Saseendran / 26 February 2014 The new Customs Declaration Form asks passengers have to specifically declare, prohibited goods and dutiable items, including gold bullion and gold jewellery. The Indian Consulate in Dubai has said that a report in local media on Tuesday, which said passengers flying to India should declare gold and jewellery worth more than Rs10,000, is false and misleading. “These will have to be entered in new customs forms that will replace the dated immigration paperwork that passengers had to fill in the past,” according to the report. It also suggested that the new requirement, which would leave a paper trail, may dissuade expat Indians from buying gold jewellery from Dubai for carrying it to India. The consulate has, however, said the report is wrong and needs to be clarified. “This is really way off the mark. It has to be clarified that the report is wrong and misleading,” an official told Khaleej Times . According to the Indian Central Board of Excise and Customs, the new ‘Indian Customs Declaration Form’, which will come into effect from March 1, requires resident Indians to declare Indian currency at the customs if the value exceeds Rs10, 000. With the introduction of the new form, all passengers also have to specifically declare, prohibited goods and dutiable items, including gold bullion and gold jewellery exceeding the free allowance. The free allowance for gold jewellery remains gold worth Rs50, 000 for males and worth Rs100, 000 for women. The Consulate clarified that passengers need not declare the gold jewellery they carry unless it is above this limit. It may be noted that the new rule has only increased the limit of Indian currency that resident Indians can carry to and out of India (from Rs7,500 to Rs10, 000), while the rule that Non-Resident Indians cannot carry Indian currency remains. Non-Resident Indians and foreigners can carry only foreign currency and need to declare it only if its value exceeds $5,000. They should also make a declaration when the aggregate value of all foreign bills in the form of currency notes, financial instruments, and travellers’ cheques is equal to or exceeds $10,000. The Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Central Bank of the UAE had previously highlighted these rules and advised expat Indians and other foreigners to refrain from carrying Indian currency to India, subsequent to reports of confiscation of counterfeit Indian currency. sajila@khaleejtimes.com For more news from Khaleej Times, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes , and on Twitter at @khaleejtimes Taylor Scott International
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