[Update 2: First concentrator is home and working through a voltage converter that Sherebanu and Nishant graciously lent us. It is pumping oxygen nicely and keeping its patient above 92 SpO2. There is hope people, there is a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow. Go for it, grab your concentrator and import. Save lives!]
[Update: First concentrator has cleared customs, two days after arrival at IGIA. Since Delhi and Gurgaon are both under curfew, FedEx can't allow me by law to pick it up at the airport. So I wait while FedEx brings it to me.
So if you're sending concentrators to a loved on, fire at will now. The duty free customs process has been worked out. You will need to pay 28% IGST on the purchase value of the concentrator to the FedEx/DHL guy at the time of delivery, in cash. Which means that when the shipment lands in India, FedEx/DHL will reach out to you for the commercial invoice of the item, if the invoice wasn't included by the shipper with the shipment.
There's a little plastic bag that you stick on the outside of a FedEx shipment, in which you include these papers. Tell your shipper to include the commercial invoice, as well as a little love letter indicating that this is a gift being sent to save a life, not a commercial item being sent for trade/sale.
Saikat Datta says prefer DHL - they have the customs process for these concentrators worked out better. That makes sense - German efficiency versus Tom Hanks movies about lost packages.]
If you know someone in FedEx India, I need your help. Two oxygen concentrators were shipped from the US to India, by close family, for close family. One landed at IGIA on Thursday evening IST, one landed Friday evening. Since this is a small shipment, we couldn't get our CHA involved (maybe we didn't try hard enough). FedEx India is distressingly opaque - we have no visibility into their customs clearance process.
The attached notification showed up yesterday. The central government claimed a week ago that duties are being removed from oxygen and related machinery, and yet, this is what we get. Anyway.
We don't mind paying customs duty, BCD, CVD, IGST, whatever the heck the government wants to charge us at this point. One of our concentrators landed before this notification, so we know we will pay. It doesn't matter. We just need the department's grubby hands off of our device so it can save lives. And we WON'T pay a bribe.
Please help. We clear tens of lakhs worth of goods every month and we always manage; we have learnt to live with the delays and the paperwork and the harassment. But right now, with life saving equipment, I'm at the end of my tether.
There are more concentrators up in the air right now, from the west coast and Germany. Those in China are stuck due to the cargo flights embargo. Another cousin now wants to ship one from the east coast to her family. And a few folks are waiting and watching how we fare before they ship their own concentrators.
As I just ranted to Gagandeep Singh. Its not like we are citizens of a free country with our own government. Its like our own government colonises us.
[Update: First concentrator has cleared customs, two days after arrival at IGIA. Since Delhi and Gurgaon are both under curfew, FedEx can't allow me by law to pick it up at the airport. So I wait while FedEx brings it to me.
So if you're sending concentrators to a loved on, fire at will now. The duty free customs process has been worked out. You will need to pay 28% IGST on the purchase value of the concentrator to the FedEx/DHL guy at the time of delivery, in cash. Which means that when the shipment lands in India, FedEx/DHL will reach out to you for the commercial invoice of the item, if the invoice wasn't included by the shipper with the shipment.
There's a little plastic bag that you stick on the outside of a FedEx shipment, in which you include these papers. Tell your shipper to include the commercial invoice, as well as a little love letter indicating that this is a gift being sent to save a life, not a commercial item being sent for trade/sale.
Saikat Datta says prefer DHL - they have the customs process for these concentrators worked out better. That makes sense - German efficiency versus Tom Hanks movies about lost packages.]
If you know someone in FedEx India, I need your help. Two oxygen concentrators were shipped from the US to India, by close family, for close family. One landed at IGIA on Thursday evening IST, one landed Friday evening. Since this is a small shipment, we couldn't get our CHA involved (maybe we didn't try hard enough). FedEx India is distressingly opaque - we have no visibility into their customs clearance process.
The attached notification showed up yesterday. The central government claimed a week ago that duties are being removed from oxygen and related machinery, and yet, this is what we get. Anyway.
We don't mind paying customs duty, BCD, CVD, IGST, whatever the heck the government wants to charge us at this point. One of our concentrators landed before this notification, so we know we will pay. It doesn't matter. We just need the department's grubby hands off of our device so it can save lives. And we WON'T pay a bribe.
Please help. We clear tens of lakhs worth of goods every month and we always manage; we have learnt to live with the delays and the paperwork and the harassment. But right now, with life saving equipment, I'm at the end of my tether.
There are more concentrators up in the air right now, from the west coast and Germany. Those in China are stuck due to the cargo flights embargo. Another cousin now wants to ship one from the east coast to her family. And a few folks are waiting and watching how we fare before they ship their own concentrators.
As I just ranted to Gagandeep Singh. Its not like we are citizens of a free country with our own government. Its like our own government colonises us.