Beware Gulf expats: You cannot carry more than 4gm of gold jewellery

[email protected] (Emirates247)
June 1, 2012

Dubai, June 1: Yes, as silly as that might sound, Indian Customs and baggage allowance regulations – outdated as they are – forbid passengers from carrying gold jewellery worth more than Rs10,000 (Dh655) if you're a male, and Rs20,000 (Dh1,310) if you're a woman.

At today's gold rates (Dh183 for 1gm of 24 carat gold), that translates into gold jewellery weighing a princely 3.57 grams for gentlemen and a rather lavish 7.15 grams for the ladies.

India's Central Board of Excise and Customs, which falls under its Ministry of Finance, stipulates that “An Indian passenger who has been residing abroad for over one year is allowed to bring jewellery, free of duty in his bona fide baggage up to an aggregate value of Rs10,000 (in the case of a male passenger) or Rs20,000 (in the case of a lady passenger).”

gold


Anything above that miserly limit is taxable under the Indian law, and if you're passing through the green channel with more than a few grams of gold on your person, well, the officer in-charge will be well within his rights to ask you to pay duty on the jewellery and/or face prosecution for trying to 'smuggle' gold and evade duty.

While Indian Customs are quick to update the exchange rates (last updated May 26, 2012) and now value the US dollar at Rs55.95 for imported goods and Rs55.15 for exported goods, the baggage rules were apparently last amended in 2006 – even though the limits set for gold and silver ornaments appear to have been set some time in last century, if not earlier.

And this amazing 'generosity' in India's baggage allowance is not limited to just jewellery. The Indian government does not allow even its own citizens to 'import' the Indian rupee, even if you are a non-resident Indian returning home for a vacation or visiting friends and family. The only exemption is for resident Indians, who may be returning home after a foreign visit. Even they can carry a maximum of Rs7,500 (Dh491).

However, the regulations do allow Indian expats returning home after a minimum of three months to carry household items (such as linen, utensils, tableware, kitchen appliances and an iron) up to an aggregate value of Rs12,000 (Dh787), and professional equipment up to a value of Rs20,000 (Dh1,311).

Those who've been out of India for at least six months get an additional quota of Rs20,000 for the professional equipment allowance.

But if you thought that professional equipment would include the likes of cameras and Dictaphones, well, you're wrong. “For the purposes of baggage rules, professional equipment means: Such portable equipment, instruments, apparatus and appliances as are ordinarily required in the profession in which the returning passenger was engaged. This expression includes items used by carpenters, plumbers, welders, masons and the like,” the regulations specify.

And as if to drive the message home, the rules add: “This concession is not available for items of common use such as cameras, cassette recorders, Dictaphones, typewriters, personal computers and similar items.”

Anyway, if you still want to 'import' gold weighing more than the allowance, here are the 'regulations' (source: Central Board of Excise and Customs website) that you are expected to adhere to:

IMPORT OF GOLD AS BAGGAGE

Who can import gold as baggage?

Any passenger of Indian Origin or a passenger holding a valid passport, issued under the Passport Act, 1967, who is coming to India after a period of not less than six months of stay abroad; and short visits, if any, made by the passenger during the aforesaid period of six months shall be ignored if the total duration of stay on such visits does not exceed thirty days.

Other Conditions

1. The duty shall be paid in convertible foreign currency.

2. The weight of gold (including ornaments) should not exceed 10kg per passenger.

Although the Customs website mentions 10kg allowance for dutiable gold import as baggage per passenger, according to latest reports, this limit has now been reduced to 1kg]

3. The passenger should not have brought gold or other ornaments during any of his visits (short visits) in the last six months i.e., he has not availed of the exemption under this scheme, at the time of short visits.

4. Ornaments studded with stones and pearls are not allowed to be imported.

5. The passenger can either bring the gold himself at the time of arrival or import the same within fifteen days of his arrival in India as unaccompanied baggage.

6. The passenger can also obtain the permitted quantity of gold from Customs bonded warehouse of State Bank of India and Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation subject to conditions (i) and (ii) above. He is required to file a declaration in the prescribed Form before the Customs Officer at the time of arrival in India stating his intention to obtain the gold from the Customs bonded warehouse and pay the duty before clearance.

RATE OF DUTY

- Gold bars, other than tola bars, bearing manufacturers or refiners engraved serial number and weight expressed in metric units and gold coins: Rs300 (Dh20) per 10gm + 3% education cess

- Gold in any form other than above, including tola bars and ornaments, but excluding ornaments studded with stones or pearls: Rs750 (Dh49) per 10gm + 3% education cess


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News Network
April 20,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 20: As many as 59 people were arrested on Monday for attacking police and health officials at the minority dominated Padarayanapura in the city when they went to quarantine some people, police said.

"Fifty-nine people have been arrested (in Padarayanapura) and have been taken into custody. The people attacked the officials who had gone to quarantine some poeple who were the primary and secondary contacts of three COVID-19 patients," a police officer said.

A large number of people, mostly youth from the minority community poured on to the road on Sunday and thrashed the health workers who had gone to quarantine some people who were the primary and secondary contacts of the health workers.

The officials were allegedly beaten black and blue.

Some local residents who went to the rescue of these officials were also thrashed.

According to police, one among the arrested is a woman by name Firoza who had allegedly instigated the mob to attack the health and police officials.

Subsequently, a large number of police personnel were deployed in the area to avert any untoward incident and to quarantine those who are suspected to be infected with COVID- 19.

Blowing sirens, a strong contingent of policemen carried out a flag march in the area.

The Bengaluru police commissioner Bhaskar Rao later called on Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and briefed him about the situation in Padayarayanapura.

The violent incident drew angry reactions from various quarters.

Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said an incident like the one at Padayarayanapura will not be tolerated.

"I met Chief Minister and briefed him about the incident. He has told us to act strictly. I have told the same to my officials. We won't tolerate such acts by anyone. We have arrested 59 people. Five FIRs have been registered," the minister told reporters.

Bommai, who visited the area took the senior police officials to task for not being present on the spot when the incident took place.

"Where were you? What were you doing when the incident happened?" he questioned a senior police officer.

"We will demonstrate to the people what is containment zone, what is seal down and what is police action," he said.

Condemning the incident, Health Minister B Srimulu warned those who indulged in such activities.

"The inhuman act of attacking police and health workers in Padarayanapura is highly deplorable. Our government will take appropriate step against those indulging in the attack on health officials and police officials who had gone there to protect them," he tweeted.

BJP's firebrand MP Shobha Karandlaje reacted sharply.

"Seculars attack #CoronaWarriors when they were quarantining the secondary contacts of #Covid19 in Padarayanapura of BLR. While #HealthcareHeroes are working overnight to contain #CoronaPandemic, these morons are assaulting our heroes! Let's not be soft on these anti- nationals!" Karandlaje tweeted.

Meanwhile, the minority leaders called on Congress state president D K Shivakumar to persuade the people of the minority community to assist in identifying the COVID-19 patients or carriers.

Former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy too condemned the attack and demanded stringent action against the culprits.

The Congress MLA from the area B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan while condemning the incident, sought to know why the health workers and police officials went to the area late in the night and not in the morning.

"Why did the police and the health workers go in the night when I had told the BBMP Commissioner that I will take them at 10 am?" Khan told reporters.

Defending those who attacked the government officials, Khan said they were uneducated labourers who didn't know what they were doing.

Padarayanapura and Bapuji Nagar were among the first areas to be completely sealed as people were not abiding by the prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC.

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News Network
February 25,2020

Bengaluru, Feb 25: Infosys is all set to announce a cyber defence centre in Indianapolis to complement its technology and innovation centre inaugurated early last year.

This will be Infosys' seventh global cyber defence centre. According to its recent cybersecurity report titled 'Assuring Digital Trust,' 83 per cent of executives view cybersecurity as critical, yet 67 per cent are still struggling to have security embedded.

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Client environment will be monitored round the clock, adopting a follow-the-sun model to deliver services like 24x7 security monitoring, management and remediation, threat hunting, security analytics, incident discovery and response, compliance reporting and malware analysis.

Vishal Salvi, Chief Information Security Officer and Head of Cyber Security Practice at Infosys, said the cyber defence centre is staffed with expert security analysts with niche skills around threat research and intelligence gathering to deliver best-in-class services to customers.

"Additionally, advanced data analytics and machine learning models are deployed to detect zero-day threats by unknown threat actors. This supports our commitment to helping our customers build a resilient cybersecurity programme that operates at scale while increasing operational efficiency and reducing costs," he said in a statement.

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News Network
April 26,2020

New Delhi, Apr 26: The Centre will bring back the Indian citizens stranded abroad due to the ban on arrival of international passenger aircraft, only if the respective states they belong to agree to allow them to come back home and make necessary arrangements to quarantine them after their return.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has started consultations with the State Governments on bringing back the Indians, who got stranded in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada and many other foreign countries due to the ban on arrival of international passenger aircraft to any airport in the country. The decision on facilitating their return to the country would be taken after getting feedback on preparedness of the States and the Union Territory to receive them following all required health precautions, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba said.

Gauba on Saturday had a video-conference with the Chief Secretaries of all States and Union Territories to review the implementation of the restrictions on travel and transport as well as the lockdown imposed across the country to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

Though the Government earlier either evacuated or facilitated the return of nearly 28000 Indians from a number of foreign countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, it almost stopped doing so after the ban on arrival of international passenger aircraft was enforced on March 23 in the wake of the spurt in the number of COVID-19 cases in India.

Thousands of Indian students, tourists, professionals and others are stranded around the world, including in the countries, where respective governments had imposed lockdowns to contain the pandemic. They have been desperately requesting the government on social media to evacuate them.

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