India Customs Duty Calculator for Travellers

About the India Customs Duty Calculator for Travellers

Work out the customs duty on what you carry into India under the Baggage Rules, 2026. A resident, an NRI or OCI cardholder (a tourist of Indian origin) and a foreigner with a visa other than a tourist visa may bring ₹75,000 of goods duty-free by air or sea, a foreign tourist ₹25,000, and every passenger of 18 or more one new laptop on top. Residents and tourists of Indian origin back after more than a year abroad bring 40 grams of jewellery duty-free (20 grams for a passenger other than a female passenger). Goods above the allowance pay 38.5%; an eligible passenger — six months abroad, of Indian origin or with an Indian passport — can pay the concessional 5% duty (plus the cess and 3% IGST) on up to 1 kg of gold and 10 kg of silver.

List your items with their values (gold and silver by weight and purity at a rate you enter): the page gives the duty, item by item, what to declare at the Red Channel and the documents to carry. Without a pass, the free preview shows the customs duty to pay in full, with what to declare, the documents, the rules for you and the first rows of each table; a Pro pass unlocks every figure, the summary and the CSV.

Common uses

• Checking before a flight home whether a new phone, watch or laptop will cost duty.
• NRIs and OCI cardholders working out how much gold jewellery they can bring and what the rest costs.
• Families planning which passenger carries what: allowances are personal and never pooled.
• Knowing whether you need the Red Channel and the Atithi declaration before you land.

The duty-free allowances

• ₹75,000 for a resident, a tourist of Indian origin (NRIs and OCI cardholders) and a foreigner with a valid visa other than a tourist visa (staying in India more than six months); ₹25,000 for a tourist of foreign origin. Arriving by land, only used personal effects needed for daily life are duty-free, from any country.
• An infant (not more than two years of age) has no allowance beyond used personal effects. Allowances are never pooled: each passenger has their own.
• Used personal effects and travel souvenirs are duty-free without a limit; one new laptop or notepad is duty-free for a passenger of 18 or more.
• Transfer of residence (moving back, or returning after working abroad) adds personal and household articles worth ₹1,50,000 after three to twelve months abroad, ₹3,00,000 after a stay of at least one year in the preceding two years, and ₹7,50,000 after two years or more just before you arrive — by air, sea or land, at most one of each article listed in Annexure II (a television among them), if you have not used it in the preceding three years (Baggage Rules, 2026). The calculator counts one television in this allowance first, as no other allowance covers it.

Jewellery, gold and silver

• Jewellery allowance: a resident or tourist of Indian origin who has lived abroad for more than a year brings 40 grams of jewellery duty-free if she is a female passenger, 20 grams for any other passenger — by weight, studded or not, with no value cap. Jewellery that is not a used personal effect is otherwise dutiable: CBIC’s guidelines (Circular 04/2026-Customs) do not let it into the general allowance. With several pieces, the calculator puts the allowance on the grams that would cost the most duty.
• Gold or silver in any form other than ornaments (bars, coins) is outside the allowance. An eligible passenger — of Indian origin or holding an Indian passport, coming after at least six months abroad (short visits of up to 30 days ignored) — may import up to 1 kg of gold and 10 kg of silver, also as jewellery not set with stones or pearls, at 5% customs duty, paid in convertible foreign currency (notification 45/2025-Customs, S. No. 194 and 195). Notification 02/2026-Customs gives both entries no effect after 31 March 2027, unless they are extended: after that day the calculator no longer applies the concession.
• On that gold and silver there is no Social Welfare Surcharge; the agriculture cess is 1% on bars and coins of gold or silver and 0.35% on ornaments; and IGST is 3% of the value with the duty and the cess.

Alcohol, tobacco and what the allowance never covers

Up to 2 litres of alcoholic liquor or wine, 100 cigarettes, 25 cigars or 125 g of tobacco count in your allowance. Above those quantities, and for firearms, more than 50 cartridges, gold or silver other than ornaments, and televisions (except one within a transfer of residence allowance), the goods are outside the allowance and outside the 38.5% baggage rate: they pay their own tariff rate (and firearms follow the import policy and the arms laws). This page lists them for you to declare but does not work their duty out.

How the duty is worked out

Goods above the allowance pay basic customs duty at 35% (notification 26/2016-Customs, applied to the 2026 rules by notification 04/2026-Customs) and the Social Welfare Surcharge of 10% of that duty — 38.5% in all; passenger baggage pays no IGST. When one article is worth more than the allowance left, only the part above it pays. Customs rounds duty to the rupee and values goods at their transaction value converted at the exchange rate it notifies (and gold at the tariff value it notifies), so the officer’s figure can differ from this estimate.

How to declare, and what to carry

If you carry dutiable or prohibited goods, declare them electronically before you reach the Green Channel — on the Atithi app or ICEGATE, from three days before you land — and go to the Red Channel to pay (Customs Baggage (Declaration and Processing) Regulations, 2026). The declaration form also sends you to the Red Channel, whatever the duty, with a pet, a television, gold bullion, jewellery beyond the allowance, a satellite phone, a drone, meat, dairy, fish or poultry products, seeds or plants, Indian currency over ₹25,000, foreign currency notes over US$5,000 or foreign exchange over US$10,000 in all; currency goes on the Currency Declaration Form. Valuables you took out of India and bring back clear duty-free with the export certificate (CBD-III) made before you left. Carry your passport, bills for new goods and, for gold at the eligible passenger’s rate, proof of your time abroad and the duty in foreign currency.

Official sources

• Baggage Rules, 2026 (notification 14/2026-Customs (N.T.))
• Customs Baggage (Declaration and Processing) Regulations, 2026 (notification 15/2026-Customs (N.T.)), with the declaration form CBD-I
• Notification 04/2026-Customs on the baggage rate of notification 26/2016-Customs
• Notification 02/2026-Customs, items (93) and (94): the term of the eligible passengers’ concession
• CBIC tax information portal: notifications 45/2025-Customs (gold and silver of eligible passengers), 11/2018-Customs (Social Welfare Surcharge), 11/2021-Customs (agriculture cess) and Circular 04/2026-Customs (guidelines for the Baggage Rules, 2026)

Limitations

• Crew members, diplomats, unaccompanied baggage and a foreigner’s transfer of residence (Appendix II) are not worked out.
• Plain gold and silver are valued by weight, purity and the rate you enter, without making charges; jewellery set with stones or pearls, and jewellery of other metals, by the value on its bill.
• Items outside the allowance and the baggage rate (alcohol and tobacco above the limits, televisions beyond a transfer of residence allowance, firearms, bars beyond the concession) are listed but their duty is not worked out.
• A new laptop is not counted as duty-free for an arrival by land, where the rules allow only used personal effects; an officer may read the laptop allowance as applying there too.
• An estimate, not legal advice: the customs officer assesses the duty, and goods carried in commercial quantities are not bona fide baggage at all.

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