New customs form for Indians, foreigners from Jan 1

Passengers flying into India will have to fill in a new customs form on their arrival from the new year while the need to fill immigration form for returning Indians is being done away with.

All passengers coming to India will be filling up an 'Indian Customs Declaration Form' seek details that will be different from the detachable perforated strip which is part of the immigration card at the moment.

"There will be a separate form for customs authorities and immigration card from the new year onwards," official sources said.

Also from January 1, Indians will have to fill up immigration form only when they go out.

"There will not be any immigration form for Indians returning from abroad," they said.

Authorities have also introduced new fields for declaration of dutiable and prohibited goods.

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 7,500 in the new form.

The passengers will have to give details of countries visited in the past six days and mention their passport numbers on the new form, which was not there earlier.

Whereas, old fields like declaration of satellite phone, foreign currency exceeding $5,000 or equivalent, aggregate value of foreign exchange including currency exceeding $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.

The passengers will also have to give details of baggage being carried by them in a separate column instead of pieces of hand baggage and checked in baggage separately.