Hi All,

This is Pradeep from Hyderabad. I had purchased a nano drone more than an year ago from some company in the U.S. (it was part of a kickstarter/indiegogo campaign and seemed unique). I never received it as it was stuck in customs which I believe is an issue faced by quite a few members in this forum. Since it was relatively cheap (Rs.1500-2000), I had decided not to respond to the letters from customs and never pursued it. However, I received a letter recently stating that the item has been confiscated (wasn't surprised ) and that now I need to pay a penalty. A quick search on the forum popped up a few topics mentioning the penalty issue. However, I am not able to figure out how and where the penalty needs to be paid. Has anyone done it before? Kindly help.

Thanks.

the penalty or charges are to be paid to the postman who will bring it is the normal procedure that takes place but in ur case if its confiscated and you are called up to see the customs office you need to carry all documents such as purchases details and stuff or mail it to them they will send it to you by the post man who drops letters generally and you pay to him this is the normal procedure as per i knw 

Thank you for the reply buddy  The latest letter I received states that the item has been confiscated and a penalty needs to be paid now. There is nothing about me have to go to the department and retrieve my item. That option is not available now. It's only the penalty. And the postman just dropped the letter in the postbox and left. Didn't bother to collect any money because he didn't know or it's not his duty.

Any ideas on how to pay the penalty?

wat i meant to say was when you are charged with customs the parcel ie: the product is dropped by postman and money or charges are to be handed over to him in this case you need to contact them and ask for further procedure 

If it only says that the item has been confiscated then its pretty much gone. There would be no delivery. If the letter said that you need to pay both RF (Redemption Fine) and PP (Personal Penalty) then there would have been an option to retrieve the item by paying RF and PP. But if they don't give the option of RF and only speaks of Penalty, that means you won't get the item (absolute confiscation) and on top of that need to pay penalty for illegal import.

In this case absolute confiscation is most likely because any type of drone, even a low powered one like yours, is now banned unless DGCA approval is there.

In this case the postman just delivered the message. They collect the penalty amount from home in cases of some violation where delivery of the goods are made on condition of your payment. That's not the case here. So, in this case, you are supposed to go to the foreign post office and pay the penalty amount.

Terminology matters. If you won't be getting the item back, just sit tight. Customs probably won't proceed further for such a low amount of penalty other than sending a few letters. If it invokes other means for penalty realization on a later day (very unlikely), then maybe you can think of paying.

Did they mention the penalty amount BTW?

Thanks Cyberhack.

@Santanucus: The penalty is Rs.200. And yes, the letter states that it is absolute confiscation resulting from illegal import. The letter also states that I can go against this judgement if I wish to but I don't have any intentions to waste time and money over a Rs.2000 toy drone and Rs.200 penalty.

So, I believe my options are either to go to the Mumbai office (from where I received the letter) and make the penalty payment or just forget it and hope that they won't pursue the penalty any further. Right? The first option would cost me more than the cost of the UAV/Drone and the penalty combined.

Sure there are no online portals where I can pay the penalty? I've checked out CBEC website but couldn't find any.

There are online payment options but those are meant for importers/exporters with IE Code. Not meant for paying for imports made through post office. Maybe there are counters or designated banks for making payment but don't bother anyway. Customs have thousands of crores of Rupees of penalty pending for realization from big business houses and influential persons. They won't pursue you for Rs.200. At the most, they'd send a couple of more notices.

There is a process to realize dues in case someone does not pay penalty...for that they need to issue separate notice. They won't bother to do that as it costs them more to pursue the matter as compared to the meagre penalty amount. So forget the matter.

Thanks Santanucus. Guess I ll let it go for now. I just wanted to be sure that they won't pester me again and summon me to present myself at Mumbai office or some Court in order to explain why I had paid the fine. It wasn't just me, the letter sent to me had a list of 10 other guys along with addresses and penalty amount.

Thanks again.


Is there anyone else in the group who received such a penalty notice in the past. Would be good to hear how you guys reacted too.

whats the duty % on drones ?

I guess its 20% on invoice value.

And how much penalty do the ask for ?

I'm not sure about the customs duty but I was asked to pay a penalty of Rs.200 on my Rs.1700 import. I haven't yet figured out how to pay it. From what I could see from the letter, those with item cost about Rs.2500 were fined Rs.300 and those with item cost less than Rs.1500 were fined Rs.100. Probably rounded off to the nearest 100.

RIGHT.
Penalty is always around 10% of invoice.

you bought it one year ago and i think that time importing drone(Quad) was not banned.
So why they held it for one year and now asking for penalty?

It seems wpc license was necessary to import and operate 2.4ghz band equipment. Hence detained at customs.

There are 100s of items imported every day which run on 2.8Ghz.
Never been an issue.

They must have some kind of permit then. Or else they import them as toys or something else. I know people who have purchased TX RX from banggood or elsewhere and are now regretting. It depends on how the sender packages and labels it too.

what's conclusion here, should we igonre this notice or have you paid penalty ? If yes where and how ?

I got 5000 Penalty for VC DRONE Which cost 2000/- As seen above they got penalty for just 200/-Now Please tell should i ignore these letter! what to do now ! it was ordered on 2017 and i got these notices on this year almost after 2 years! What should i do !

"""""I got 5000 Penalty for VC DRONE Which cost 2000/- As seen above they got penalty for just 200/-Now Please tell should i ignore these letter! what to do now ! it was ordered on 2017 and i got these notices on this year almost after 2 years! What should i do !
"""""

I am exactly in same situation.. May I know What you did. Its chennai customs for me.

Hey buddy,
My RC helicopter also stuck in Chennai custom, I'm keep on getting penalty notice from them.
Should i need to pay or can i ignore it?

You got it after 2 years?

That give me some hope, I have a lost usps courier worth 7k for 6 months. No tracking after it landed in India. I hope someday I get it.

Hi guys please guide me. I've read that circa 2016-2017 the penalty was 200 rupees. I ordered in 2019 and like everyone else I also didn't recieve and it got stuck in kolkata customs, then after few months later kolkata customs sent me a clarification letter to give my explanation regarding this toy import. I thought not to get into a debate with the authority and ignored that letter. Then after 2 years later in 2021 I received another letter from Kolkata customs which is another notice. It was written that I've been fined by kolkata customs of 5000 rupees. The penalty amount has been increased to 5000 rupees. I mean like I didn't recieve the product, and now they imposed 5000 rupees penalty. So please help me I need to know do I have to pay the 5000 rupees penalty at any cost??? Is there anyone else here who ignored this notice? What will happen If I ignore this penalty notice? I'm stressed out please please anyone reply!!!!!

Hi guys please guide me. I've read that circa 2016-2017 the penalty was 200 rupees. I ordered in 2019 and like everyone else I also didn't recieve and it got stuck in kolkata customs, then after few months later kolkata customs sent me a clarification letter to give my explanation regarding this toy import. I thought not to get into a debate with the authority and ignored that letter. Then after 2 years later in 2021 I received another letter from Kolkata customs which is another notice. It was written that I've been fined by kolkata customs of 5000 rupees. The penalty amount has been increased to 5000 rupees. I mean like I didn't recieve the product, and now they imposed 5000 rupees penalty. So please help me I need to know do I have to pay the 5000 rupees penalty at any cost??? Is there anyone else here who ignored this notice? What will happen If I ignore this penalty notice? I'm stressed out please please anyone reply!!!!!