Passengers flying into India now have to declare over Rs 10,000 in new immigration form

New Delhi, Feb 16: 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 the number of baggage, including hand baggage, while entering into the country, say 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 fill 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 fraud 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 USD 5,000 or equivalent, aggregate value of foreign exchange including currency exceeding USD 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.

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.