Passengers
flying into India will have to declare Indian currency exceeding Rs 10,000
being brought by them, according to new customs rules which will be implemented
from next month.
Besides,
they will also be asked to declare number of baggage, including hand baggage,
while entering into India, said the new rules notified by the finance ministry.
According
to new rules under Customs Baggage Declaration (Amendment) Regulations, 2014,
an Indian citizen would need to fill up the immigration form only when he or
she goes out of the country. There will be no immigration form for Indian
citizens returning from abroad.
The
regulations will be implemented from March 1, said a notification issued on
February 10 by the finance ministry.
All
passengers coming to India will be filling up a new 'Indian Customs Declaration
Form' which will seek details that will be different from the detachable
perforated strip which is a part of the immigration card at the moment.
The
'Indian Customs Declaration Form' carries additional fields for declaration of
dutiable and prohibited goods, which will help authorities in checking customs
duty frauds and keep a record of gold jewellery and bullion being brought into
the country, customs officials said.
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 10,000 in the new form, they said.
A
passenger will have to give details of countries visited in the past six days
and mention the passport number on the new form, which was not there earlier.
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.
The
passengers will also have to give details of baggage, including hand baggage,
being carried by them in a separate column on the form.
The
country has 19 international airports in Srinagar, Amritsar, Jaipur, Delhi,
Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Nagpur, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Goa, Bangalore, Chennai,
Calicut, Coimbatore, Tiruchirapalli, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Port Blair.
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