Parcel withheld by Deputy Commissioner of Customs Foreign Post Office, Ahmedabad

[idiotghost]

Hi Everyone

Need your help on how to release my parcel/letter which is taken in by the Office of Deputy Commissioner of Customs Foreign Post Office, Ahmedabad, India.

Firstly I'm not sure which letter they are actually referring at as they have just written a letter no. There is no mention who the sender is, or sender's address or the country of origin, nothing! I dont even know what letter/parcel contains without the actual reference of the letter.

I suspect its a letter from China which was posted on Nov 15 by a regular post which doesnt come with any tracking details. That letter contained some 50-60 Japanese used stamps of letters.

The other far fetched option would be a letter from USA which has been lost for a year now & contained 4 quarter dollar coins (total of $1 only). Highly unlikely that since Nov 2019 its been roaming around & they discovered it now!

Now these 2 above letters were without tracking no. & regular post, so I dont know the details of which letter its been referred to.

Now they told me to email & find out what the sender's name & country of origin. The other phone no. doesnt work!

Now the main part: How do I get the letter released from the Customs in case its the letter containing stamps? They have asked to email plethora of proofs & value of the goods! What value I give for used stamps?

Suggestions are welcome on how to get the stuck letter/parcel released.

PS: I had a letter containing 100+ stamps from France came easily this month, no hiccups there at the Delhi Customs. The letter came with a tracking no. so i could see the customs held the letter for 2 days for checking, but they passed it without any issue. The letter didnt mention on it what it was carrying & was lightweight.

PPS: There is one more parcel now shipped from UK, by a fellow WOC senior member also now in the picture.

Thanks

[eurocoin]

It is not uncommon for customs to be inconsistent in the procedures that apply to mail. The letter will indeed most likely contain the Japanese stamps. Did you buy these Japanese used stamps online from China? Or did you swap them or were they a gift? That is relevant to be able to answer your question.

[idiotghost]

It is not uncommon for customs to be inconsistent in the procedures that apply to mail. The letter will indeed most likely contain the Japanese stamps. Did you buy these Japanese used stamps online from China? Or did you swap them or were they a gift? That is relevant to be able to answer your question.

So there is one more letter on the way from a fellow member of WOC from UK. So its now difficult to guess which letter is the customs referring to. So the Japanese stamps were a gift from a fellow philatelist I met on Facebook groups & these were specially odd shaped stamps. So they are used stamps, dont have any value. In recent months a lot of Ecommerce parcels are stopped from China & letters are having a hard time to reach in India due to the recent hostilities between the 2 countries.

[eurocoin]

Ah, I see. That makes the situation more complicated. Well, I would just email them and explain the situation, that you are expecting multiple letters and do not know which one they are referring to. They should be able to provide you more information about the specific letter they are talking about.

If it is the stamps, tell them who the sender is. Also explain that they are a gift. I would just put a very low value on them, like 300 rupees or so. If you tell them the stamps are completely worthless, I don't think they will believe you.

In all of the correspondence with them mention the Parcel No. they gave you. 

[Bimat]

It would be rather unusual if custom duty is charged on used stamps, even if those are coming from China. The letter must have been containing coins but I don't see any reason to charge custom duty on that unless there are large number of coins, making the letter very heavy.

The customs' department does ask for RBI license to import currency from other countries but believe me, you don't have to provide anything to them. Just write them an e-mail [you can find the e-mail address for the Ahmedabad customs on Google] saying that it's a gift from friend which you do not intend to resell it in India. If they insist to provide some value, just say £5 or so and they will then charge custom duty on it as per rules. If the coins were bought from a seller, the seller must have included an invoice inside so they will straightaway charge duty on it looking at the invoice and you won't even get a notice - you just have to pay the required amount to the postman.

When I first received similar letter from customs back in 2013, I was hell scared after reading all its demands. I was so tensed that I decided to visit them personally [they have a regional office in South Mumbai] where I met a very nice customs' officer named Mr. Gupta. He was friendly and listened to me patiently but ultimately ruled that I will have to pay the customs duty and it was in a sense justified as it was a purchase from a German dealer so not a gift definitely. The letter had Austrian €25 dated 2013, that's what caught their eyes apparently.

Since then, I have paid custom duty quite a few times, received similar notice couple of times. I only provide them the invoice through e-mail, never even mentioned other documents like RBI license etc. It works just fine.

Aditya