Jewellery check at IGI

Passengers arriving at the international terminal of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi airport may soon have to declare the value of the jewellery they are carrying and wearing.

Passengers arriving at the international terminal of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi airport may soon have to declare the value of the jewellery they are carrying and wearing.

The customs department is also preparing a new detailed declaration form, which a passenger has to fill out on arrival. The new form has 21 questions compared to the previous one which had just four queries.

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The proposal is awaiting approval of senior officials.

"We have detailed questions for jewellery. A passenger will be required to tell the type and value of jewellery he/she is carrying and also what they
are wearing," said a customs official, requesting anonymity.

"Under the new declaration form, we will also be asking passengers to declare the amount of cash they are carrying. We have also separated electronics under separate heads such as laptop, mobile and camera," the official added.

This financial year, the limit of jewellery for female passengers has been increased from Rs 20,000 to Rs 1 lakh and for male passengers from Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000. However, despite the increase, a female passenger cannot carry more than 35 gm of gold.

Last year, as many as 20 passengers were stopped and fined and few were arrested for carrying undeclared gold jewellery. A source, requesting anonymity, claimed that if customs remain strict, at least 50 passengers may be caught with excess jewellery.