RC India

Hello Everyone,

One of my friend just now told me that Banggood.com has started shipping lipo batteries to India. 

Just wanted to share the news with all of you.  May be have chat with customer care to confirm this.

Swapnil N.

Banggood can very well ship it, but customs won't let it through ;D

No its not customs issue, lipo's are banned in Airplane I think.  That's why they were not shipping it to India.

Just checked banggood now...yes they have started shipping lipos to India...

Lithium Based battery packs are labeled hazardous material during import; well it should be.

And any such label attracts Customs officials' attention. Well BG didn't have any shipping option, but there were plenty of other options. I don't think shipping was the issue, but customs clearance.

Anyways, one of the bravest of us have to come forward, and take a chance ;D

Lipos come under Dangerous Goods category according to the IATA.
You just have to have a carrier who handles HazMat, i.e Dangerous Goods. These carriers arrange the paperworks required to ship items which come under dangerous goods.
And yeah, rc batteries are not bulky, so they won't have any problems ;D
Now, If Banggood has started shipping batteries to India, again, then they surely would have made better arrangements for a smooth shipping.
 :hatsoff:

Agree completely....it was transport issue and not customs issue....

@Chirag Let's hope :) But haven't heard of HAZMAT. It stands for Hazardous Materials, I believe.

But safety is always a concern. If they're to ship it individually to India, then it surely is wrongly classified, in which case, it poses a safety risk to the people who carry it(especially, if it's by air).

But bulk shipping of Lipo alone is probably not that dangerous, and enough safety measures will be taken accordingly since the quantity is high.

The carriers who allow lipos on a general carrier too have safety measures.
If you'd see, they charge extra for shipping lipos than shipping other goods. The charge is normally about 7% of the cost of the batteries.
This is what I know from what I have read and inquired about.
 :hatsoff:

@Vipin

I've tried importing several times, via a lot of courier companies, to ship lipos to India from China. That doesn't work. You need clearing, if it's properly classified.

What I figure is, BG will classify it as something that's not hazardous, and ship it. To the ones that get checked, stays. Else, gets delivered.
Might be a similar story to importing drones ;D

Anyways, that's my opinion. I might be wrong. It was so, like I mentioned, the last time I had checked.

@Chirag
7% is the shipping. Around 40% would be the customs duty, if they're checked ;D

@arvind, yea 40% duty too. Thanks for adding.
 :hatsoff:

So, that's around ~50% duty. (shipping is also included while calculating import duty)

Yup, Better buy it in India :giggle:, in shops or through, maybe amazon.in,  ;D

You may be requiring clearing for bulk purchase. But for 2-3 qty's  that may not be the case. The Lipo's get classified as HAZMAT. There is HAZMAT fee as well for transport. BG must have done their homework. I am not going to buy Lipo's from BG as the same quality I can get in India from Rcbazaar.

On a side note, its better to get Lipo's through friends coming from US. It's cheaper than in India and you get good quality also. Order around Halloween, Christmas, New Year, Black Friday etc. to get good deal. I am talking about Gensace & Tattu batteries. I got them and happy with the purchase.

Recently one of my fellow flier's shipment with 3 lipos got confiscated from AliExpress. Reason being "bulk" import. So in my belief its better to stick to one.

Hi everyone,

It seems Lipo's shipping option is again out, unable to get buy option.

Infact many of the RC items (brushless motors/ESC) are also showing only "expedited shipping".

Anyone else also facing similar issues ??

Yes me and many of my friends too.

Had to clear a few things yesterday, here at Chennai. Got the info, that because the Indian Customs has issued strict regulations, so mostly expedited shipping will be allowed for the time being.
The main reason is because of the drones. A lot of people who are dumb about the subject buy cheap drones which pile up at the office. And it seems they want to put an end to it.

I feel it's better, from customs perspective, but at the same time a little bit off the line for most of the hobbyists.

So, do you guys think that expedited shipping is safe from customs? Which courier Service do they use when choosing expedited shipping? If it is safe then might as well buy items in bunches or bulk to justify the shipping cost.

Had real bad experience on expedited shipping from banggood. DHL was the courier company for my expedited shipping. DHL always goes through customs. And DHL also charges you 500 Rs for customs clearance. If the clearance is delayed (whoever’s fault) you will be charged warehouse fees on daily basis.
And in my case, it took 14 days to get the customs assessment done. And courier arrived late than normal shipping.
Finally if there are customs duty, banggood might reimburse based on the tariff insurance plan.
So I don’t think expedited shipping justify the cost.

An expensive shipping attracts the customs inspection, relatively higher than usual parcels.

As @sim_tcr has mentioned, the delay in the shipping process is due to the delay at Customs.

So, it's much better to stick to cheap shipping, if it's available.

All of us try our luck by importing restricted items and when it is held by customs we raise "Not received / paypal dispute" and get our money back.
So, they might have withdrawn postal shipments.

If it is express and customs not clears it, the shipment goes back to seller and the return shipping charges is deducted from what we paid for the item.