How to Import from China to India, from IEC to Landed Cost

A business in India can import almost anything from China. There is no general ban on Chinese goods, and the one registration every importer needs is an Import Export Code (IEC), which costs ₹500 and is issued online. What decides whether a first import works is everything around it: whether your product needs a BIS licence, how you pay the supplier, and how much duty lands on top of the price.

The process of how to import from China to India runs in this order:

1. Check the rules for your product. Most goods are free to import, but toys, furniture, footwear and a growing list of electronics need BIS certification held by the factory.
2. Get your IEC from the DGFT portal.
3. Find and verify a supplier on Alibaba, 1688 or Made-in-China.
4. Order and pay from your business bank account.
5. Ship by courier, air freight, a shared container or a full container.
6. Clear customs through a licensed customs broker and pay import duty.

Work out your landed cost before you pay a deposit. On the six common products in the duty table below, duty and IGST alone add 28% to 79% of the goods’ customs value, before freight and port charges.

Are Chinese Imports Allowed in India?

Yes. India has no rule that blocks goods because they come from China. Under the Foreign Trade Policy, imports are “free” by default. A product is only restricted if the ITC(HS) schedule lists it as prohibited, restricted or reserved for state trading, and those lists apply to every country, not to China alone.

Most of the confusion comes from measures India took after 2020. None of them stops a private business from buying Chinese goods:

• The app bans. India blocked 59 Chinese apps in June 2020 and 43 more in November 2020, including AliExpress and Alibaba’s supplier apps. They banned apps, not goods.
• Press Note 3 (April 2020). Investment from countries that share a land border with India needs government approval. It controls who can own shares in Indian companies, not what you can import.
• Government procurement curbs. Chinese suppliers were kept out of most public tenders, and in 2026 India began easing this for state-run power and coal companies. A private importer was never covered.

What does apply to you is product-level regulation. Three kinds catch most first-time importers.

BIS certification. Hundreds of products can’t be imported unless the factory holds a licence from the Bureau of Indian Standards, and the list grows every year. Toys have needed it since January 2021, six types of furniture since 13 February 2026, and a broad order on household and commercial electrical appliances takes effect on 1 October 2026.

Anti-dumping duty. This is the one measure aimed at China specifically, and it is an extra cost rather than a ban. It is covered in the duty section.

Approvals for specific product types. Anything with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth needs WPC equipment type approval. An importer selling electronics covered by India’s e-waste rules must register for e-waste EPR with the Central Pollution Control Board. Food goes through FSSAI, and cosmetics and medical devices through CDSCO.

For the product types Indian importers ask about most:

BIS Certificate for Import in India

If your product is on a BIS list, the certificate isn’t something you apply for as an importer. BIS licenses the manufacturer, for one factory, one product and one Indian Standard. A licence held by a different factory doesn’t cover your goods, even if that factory makes an identical product. Your job is to buy from a factory that already holds a valid licence for your exact product, and to confirm the licence is real.

1. Check the lists. Look your product up in the Scheme I list (ISI mark: toys, furniture, footwear, appliances and more) and the Scheme II list (CRS registration for electronics). If it isn’t on either, BIS doesn’t apply.
2. Ask the supplier for the licence or registration number before you pay anything, together with the brand and model numbers it covers.
3. Verify it yourself. The BIS Care app has “Verify Licence Details” for ISI-marked goods and “Verify R-Number under CRS” for electronics, and Manak Online has a licence search. The factory name, address, brand and model on the record must match your order.

Don’t skip step 3. Indian buyers have reported Chinese factories printing BIS numbers they don’t hold, and middlemen offering to bring electronics in “without BIS”. Goods without a valid licence can be stopped at customs, and you can’t legally sell them.

If no licensed factory makes what you want, the options are slow. A Chinese factory applying for a new licence under BIS’s foreign manufacturer scheme faces a published service time of six months, and CRS registration for electronics has a 20-working-day standard. A 2026 Transition Facilitation Order lets Indian companies approved by DPIIT source toys, furniture and some other categories from manufacturers with a lighter Scheme II registration, but approval follows a government risk assessment, so it isn’t a shortcut for a small importer. In practice, most buyers choose among factories that already hold the licence.

How to Apply for Import Export License

In India, the “import export license” is the Importer-Exporter Code (IEC), issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT). It isn’t tied to any product: one IEC covers all your imports and exports, and each PAN can hold only one.

You apply on the DGFT portal:

1. Register with your mobile number and email address.
2. Fill in the IEC application (form ANF-2A) with your business, address and bank details.
3. Upload the documents listed below as PDFs.
4. Pay the ₹500 fee through Bharatkosh, the government’s online payment system.
5. Sign with a digital signature certificate (DSC) or Aadhaar e-sign, and submit.

DGFT says the IEC is issued immediately after a successful submission, and your bank details are verified the next day.

Three things to sort out alongside it:

• GST registration. The IGST you pay at customs comes back as input tax credit only if your GSTIN is on the Bill of Entry.
• Annual update. Every IEC must be updated online between April and June each year, even if nothing has changed. If you skip it, the IEC is deactivated.
• ICEGATE registration. You only need this if you’ll file your own customs declarations. A customs broker filing for you uses their own ICEGATE registration.

If you’re importing for your own use rather than for business, you don’t need an IEC. Personal-use parcels by post or courier are taxed at a flat 30.98% since 1 April 2026 (10% duty, plus the welfare surcharge and 18% IGST).

Documents Required for IEC Code

• PAN of the business. For a sole proprietorship, this is your personal PAN.
• Proof of registration or incorporation, for a company, LLP or partnership. A sole proprietor doesn’t need one.
• Proof of the business address: a sale deed, rent agreement, or an electricity or telephone bill.
• Bank proof: a cancelled cheque or a letter from your bank. The account name must match the business name.
• A DSC or Aadhaar linked to your mobile number, for signing.

These are one-time documents. The paperwork each shipment needs is listed under customs clearance.

Best Website to Import from China to India

For most Indian buyers, the best place to start is Alibaba.com: it’s in English, it works in India, and orders placed through it can be covered by Trade Assurance. 1688.com is cheaper but only reachable through a buying agent in China. Made-in-China and Global Sources widen your pool of manufacturers. AliExpress, the site many people try first, doesn’t work for India.

We’ve compared these and more in our guide to China wholesale websites, and weighed the two biggest in 1688 vs Alibaba.

A website only gives you names. Before you trust a supplier:

• Check the business licence on China’s National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System. The company name should match the one on the quote, its status should be active, and its registered scope should include manufacturing if it claims to be a factory.
• Find out whether it’s a factory or a trading company. A trading company is fine for small mixed orders. For BIS-regulated products, you need the licensed factory’s name on the certificate.
• Ask for a live video walk-through of the production line, not photos.
• Order a sample and keep it as the reference you’ll inspect the bulk order against.
• Send the same request for quotation to 10 or more suppliers. A price far below the rest usually means different materials, a different spec or a reseller.

Searching where your product is made also helps you reach factories instead of resellers: electronics around Shenzhen, furniture in Foshan’s Lecong, toys in Shantou’s Chenghai, clothing in Guangzhou and small commodities in Yiwu. Our guide to China’s wholesale markets covers the main clusters.

How to Buy from Alibaba in India

You can buy from Alibaba.com in India, and suppliers ship here. Every shipment still goes through Indian customs, and duty is paid on arrival unless a DDP shipper pays it for you and bills you.

1. Shortlist 5 to 10 suppliers and run the checks above.
2. Send inquiries with your spec, quantity, target price and “delivery to [port], India”. Ask for the HS code, and for the BIS licence number if your product needs one.
3. Order samples and compare them.
4. Place the order through Alibaba’s checkout. Trade Assurance only covers orders placed and paid on Alibaba.com, either online or by wire to the account Alibaba specifies. It lets you claim a refund if goods don’t ship, get lost, or arrive damaged, defective or different from what you ordered, as long as you claim within 30 days of receiving them.
5. Choose how the goods reach India.

There are three common ways to get an Alibaba order to India, and the difference is whose name goes on the customs declaration:

You can only claim the IGST back when the Bill of Entry carries your GSTIN, which is the practical difference between the first two routes and DDP. For more on the platform itself, see how to purchase from Alibaba and whether Alibaba is safe to buy from.

Ordering Products from China

An order from a Chinese supplier moves through quote, sample, proforma invoice, deposit, production, inspection, balance payment and shipment. Most problems start in the first three steps.

Get comparable quotes. Send every supplier the same spec sheet: materials, dimensions, finish, packaging, quantity and trade term. Otherwise you’re comparing different products.

Negotiate the minimum order. Factory minimums are often larger than a first Indian order. Suppliers usually go lower if you take an existing design or colour, accept stock packaging or pay a slightly higher unit price. A trading company or an agent that combines several buyers’ orders is another way in. More on this in what MOQ means.

Read the proforma invoice line by line. It should show the seller’s legal company name, a bank account in that same name, the full spec, quantity, unit price, trade term, delivery date and payment terms. The company on the proforma invoice, the commercial invoice and the bank account you pay must be one and the same.

Pick the trade term. FOB is the usual choice for Indian importers: the supplier handles export clearance and loads the goods onto the ship in China, and you pay freight and everything after that. EXW leaves collection and Chinese export clearance to you, which is hard to manage from India. Under CIF the supplier pays freight to the Indian port, but you have no say in the carrier, and the destination charges in India are billed to you anyway. Our comparisons of FOB vs EXW, FOB vs CIF and FOB vs DDP go into each.

Inspect before the balance is paid. Once the balance is paid, you’ve lost your leverage. Have the goods checked against the approved sample while they’re still at the factory; our quality control checklist lists what to check.

How to Make Payment to China from India

Pay from your business current account by bank wire through an authorised dealer (AD) bank, to an account in the name of the company on your invoice. That is the legal route for commercial imports, and it keeps your records consistent for customs, GST and your bank.

The usual terms are 30% as a deposit to start production and 70% before shipment, once the goods have passed inspection. Larger orders sometimes use a letter of credit, where your bank pays only against shipping documents; it costs more in bank fees and suits larger order values. On Alibaba, paying through Trade Assurance is the protected option. There is no overall cap on advance payments for imports, but a single advance above USD 200,000 needs a guarantee or standby letter of credit from an international bank, under RBI rules.

Two shortcuts cause most payment trouble:

• Paying through personal channels. Wise, personal cards and similar services send money under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme, which is a personal allowance of USD 250,000 a year. Amounts above ₹10 lakh a year attract tax collected at source (TCS) of up to 20%. You can set TCS off against your income tax later, but it ties up cash. A sole proprietor paying this way uses up their own LRS limit.
• Paying a personal account or a different company. Your bank matches import payments against your Bills of Entry in RBI’s IDPMS system, so a payment to anyone other than the company on the invoice becomes a mismatch you’ll have to explain. It also leaves you with no paper trail if the order goes wrong. Suppliers who ask for this are usually avoiding their own tax paperwork. Informal agents who pay in Alipay or cash in China are outside the banking system altogether.

Banks charge a flat fee per transfer plus a margin on the exchange rate. Ask your bank for both, and compare its rate with the day’s reference rate before you send.

Shipping from China to India

There are five practical ways to move goods from China to India, and the choice comes down mostly to weight and volume:

• Express courier (DHL, FedEx, UPS, Aramex): door to door, with customs handled by the courier. For samples and small parcels.
• Air freight: airport to airport, with your own customs broker in India. For urgent or valuable goods too big for a courier.
• LCL (less than container load): your cartons share a container with other shippers’ goods. For roughly 0.5 to 15 cubic metres (CBM).
• FCL (full container load): a 20ft or 40ft container for your goods alone, usually cheaper than LCL from about 15 CBM.
• DDP consolidation: a shipper combines many small buyers’ goods, clears them under its own name, and charges you a door-to-door rate per kilogram.

There is no practical road route. India and China trade overland only through three regulated border points (Lipulekh, Shipki La and Nathu La), which serve local border traders; Lipulekh reopened in June 2026 with a first batch of 26 passes.

If you’d rather not coordinate carriers yourself, our shipping service covers sea, air, express and DDP from China.

China to India Shipping Cost

China to India freight rates moved a lot in 2026, partly because conflict in the Middle East forced ships to reroute. Treat published rates as a guide and get a quote dated this week. Public freight rate guides showed:

DDP consolidators price door to door by the kilogram, duty included. Indian buyers shared quotes of ₹1,100 to ₹1,250 per kg in April 2026, when rates rose with the Middle East disruption.

The LCL rate per CBM looks cheap, but it is rarely what you end up paying. The Indian side bills container freight station, delivery order and handling charges per shipment, and those often outweigh the ocean freight on a small consignment.

On a full container, the freight quote usually leaves out these charges, per container:

• Origin charges in China: US$250–700. Your supplier pays these on FOB terms.
• Terminal handling at the Indian port: ₹7,000–16,000 or more.
• Delivery order and shipping line charges: ₹10,000–30,000 or more.
• Customs broker fee: ₹8,000–25,000.
• Trucking from the port to your warehouse: ₹15,000 to over ₹1 lakh, depending on distance.

A cheaper freight quote can cost more overall. A quote about US$200 lower may route through a transshipment port, allow fewer free days at the Indian port, or land just before a holiday, and the detention and storage charges that follow can exceed the saving. Compare quotes on route, transit time and free days, not only on the freight figure.

How Much Time It Takes to Import from China to India

From paying a deposit to having goods in your warehouse, a sea shipment usually takes two to three months. Production of a standard product commonly takes three to six weeks, sea transit from factory to door takes three to six weeks, and Indian customs takes a few days if your documents are in order. By air, transit drops to about 7 to 12 days door to door; express couriers take 2 to 5 working days.

Sea transit times by route, port to port:

Actual sailings often run longer than schedules. Across 459 recorded voyages from Ningbo to Mundra, the median was 26.2 days at sea and 32.9 days door to door.

Outside the voyage, allow 1 to 3 days to book space, 1 to 3 days to collect from the factory, 1 to 2 days for Chinese export clearance, 1 to 3 days at the port before sailing, and 1 to 5 days for Indian customs to process the Bill of Entry. Chinese New Year adds the biggest delay: most factories stop for two to four weeks around late January or February, and production slows for a while before and after, so an order placed in December can slip by a month.

Cheapest Way to Import from China to India

Sea freight is the cheapest per kilogram, but the cheapest way for your order depends on its size:

• Samples and parcels of a few kilograms: express courier. The rate per kg is the highest, but there’s nothing else to arrange.
• Up to about 200 kg or 0.5 CBM: air freight or a DDP consolidator. Below this, sea freight’s fixed charges outweigh its lower rate.
• About 0.5 to 15 CBM: LCL.
• Above about 15 CBM: a full container, which then usually costs less than the same volume shipped LCL.

For small buyers, the bigger saving is usually consolidation, not a better freight rate. Port, delivery order and customs broker charges are billed per shipment, so goods from three suppliers shipped together pay them once instead of three times.

Freight Forwarder China to India

A freight forwarder arranges transport. It collects your goods (or receives them at the Chinese port under FOB), books space with an airline or shipping line, issues the bill of lading and arranges delivery in India. Many forwarders also arrange Indian customs clearance through a licensed customs broker, and some sell DDP door-to-door service, where they import the goods under their own name.

Before you book, ask:

1. Whose IEC and GSTIN will be on the Bill of Entry? If it isn’t yours, you can’t claim the IGST credit, and you aren’t the importer on record.
2. Will I get a copy of the Bill of Entry and the duty payment receipt?
3. Does the quote include destination charges (terminal handling, delivery order, container freight station, clearance and delivery), or only freight?
4. How many free days do I get at the Indian port before detention and storage charges start?
5. Is cargo insurance included, and for what value?
6. For DDP: what happens if customs holds or examines the shipment, and can you legally ship products that need BIS?

DDP can work well for small orders, but get these answers first. Indian buyers who’ve used DDP describe a familiar pattern: the first few shipments go smoothly, a larger one gets held, and there’s little they can do because the goods weren’t cleared in their name.

Import Customs Clearance Procedure in India

Indian customs clearance is done online through ICEGATE, usually by a licensed customs broker acting for you. Once the ship arrives, it typically takes a few days if your documents are in order:

1. The shipping line or airline files an Import General Manifest listing the cargo on board.
2. Your broker files the Bill of Entry, the customs declaration, with your IEC, GSTIN, HS codes, values and supporting documents. It can be filed before the ship arrives, which saves days at the port.
3. Customs assesses the Bill of Entry. Most are cleared on the documents; some get a query on classification or value.
4. You pay duty online. On a self-assessed Bill of Entry, duty is due the day it’s filed; if customs returns it after assessment, you have one working day. Late payment carries interest at 15% a year.
5. Some shipments are picked for physical examination at the port or container freight station.
6. Customs issues the “out of charge” order. You pay the port or container freight station charges, collect the delivery order from the shipping line, and truck the goods out.

Shipments usually get stuck on mismatched documents, a query over the HS code or value, a missing BIS licence or other approval, or an examination. Storage and detention charges build up while you wait, and goods left uncleared 30 days after unloading can be sold by the port or warehouse holding them, after notice to you.

Courier imports follow a separate, simpler process. The courier clears the parcel on a courier Bill of Entry; dutiable parcels worth up to ₹1 lakh go through a simplified form, and commercial parcels still need your IEC.

What Documents Are Required to Import from China to India?

Three documents are required for every shipment: the bill of lading (or air waybill), the commercial invoice with packing list, and the Bill of Entry. Everything else depends on your product.

From your supplier:

• Commercial invoice showing seller, buyer, description, HS code, quantity, unit price, total value, trade term and currency.
• Packing list with the number of cartons, and each carton’s weight and dimensions.
• Bill of lading for sea freight or air waybill for air freight, issued by the carrier or forwarder.
• APTA certificate of origin, if your product qualifies for the lower APTA rate.
• For BIS-regulated products, goods marked with the factory’s licence or registration number.

From you or your customs broker:

• Bill of Entry, filed by your broker on ICEGATE.
• Your IEC and GST registration.
• KYC documents and an authorisation letter for your broker.
• Insurance certificate, if you insured the cargo.
• Product approvals where they apply, such as WPC approval, EPR registration or an FSSAI licence.

The invoice, the packing list and your payment record must agree: the same company names, quantities and values. Mismatches between them are a common cause of valuation queries.

Custom Clearance Agent

A custom house agent (CHA), now officially called a licensed customs broker, files your Bill of Entry, answers customs queries, attends examinations and gets the out-of-charge order. Using one isn’t compulsory: an IEC holder can register on ICEGATE and file their own Bill of Entry. Most small importers use a broker anyway, because classification and valuation queries are where first-time filers get stuck. Expect about ₹8,000 to ₹25,000 per container.

When choosing one, ask to see their customs broker licence, ask for a written quote that lists every charge, and ask which port or air cargo complex they usually work at. If your forwarder offers clearance, ask whether they file themselves or pass the job to a broker at the port.

What Is the Import Duty from China to India?

Import duty on Chinese goods in India usually adds between about 28% and 79% of the customs value once IGST is included, depending on the product. There is no single “China rate”: duty depends on the 8-digit HS code, and most imports pay several layers.

• Basic Customs Duty (BCD): the main tariff. It’s 20% for most products in the table below and 70% for finished toys.
• Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess (AIDC): charged on some products in place of part of the BCD, such as 5% on furniture and 18.5% on sneakers.
• Social Welfare Surcharge (SWS): 10% of the BCD. Toys, furniture and some footwear are now exempt.
• IGST: usually 5% or 18%, charged on the customs value plus all the duties above. GST-registered importers can claim it back as input tax credit.

Rates for common products, as of September 2026:

Rates change with most Union Budgets, so check your own code before you order. ICEGATE’s Know Your Import Duty tool takes an HS code of 4 to 8 digits; choose China as the country of origin and it also shows any preferential rate and anti-dumping duty. Your supplier’s Chinese HS code shares only its first six digits with India’s, so confirm the last two with your broker.

Two items apply to Chinese goods in particular:

• Anti-dumping duty. India levies extra duty on a long list of Chinese products found to be sold below fair value, often at a different rate for each Chinese manufacturer. Aluminium foil up to 80 microns is a 2025 example. It can make one supplier far more expensive than another for the same product.
• APTA. India and China are both members of the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement, under which India gives lower duty on 3,142 tariff lines. The cut varies by line, and you only get it if your supplier provides an APTA certificate of origin.

How to Calculate Custom Duty

Duty is calculated in layers, each on top of the last:

1. Assessable value (AV) = cost of the goods + freight + insurance to the Indian port, converted at the customs exchange rate. If freight isn’t known, customs adds 20% of the FOB value; if insurance isn’t known, it adds 1.125%. For air shipments, the freight counted is capped at 20% of FOB.
2. BCD = AV × BCD rate.
3. AIDC = AV × AIDC rate, where it applies.
4. SWS = 10% of BCD, unless the product is exempt.
5. IGST = (AV + BCD + AIDC + SWS) × IGST rate.

Anti-dumping duty, where it applies, is added on top.

Example: Bluetooth speakers by sea. Goods at ₹1,50,000 FOB, sea freight ₹12,000, insurance not declared.

• AV: ₹1,50,000 + ₹12,000 + ₹1,688 (1.125% of FOB) = ₹1,63,688
• BCD at 20%: ₹32,738
• SWS at 10% of BCD: ₹3,274
• IGST at 18% of ₹1,99,700: ₹35,946
• Total: ₹71,958, or 44% of the assessable value

Why courier samples get hit so hard. Say a supplier sends 8 pairs of sneakers by express courier on an invoice of ₹25,000 that doesn’t show the shipping cost. Customs adds 20% of FOB as presumed freight (₹5,000) and 1.125% as insurance (₹281), for an AV of ₹30,281. BCD of ₹6,056, AIDC of ₹5,602 and IGST at 18% (each pair costs more than ₹2,500) of ₹7,549 bring the total to ₹19,207. That’s 77% of what you paid the supplier. Indian buyers regularly report courier duty bills of 70% or more on samples; this is how they add up. Free samples can come in duty-free within limits, covered in the FAQ.

How Much Does It Cost to Import from China to India?

Landed cost is everything you pay until the goods reach your warehouse: product, freight, insurance, duties, port and clearance charges, and inland transport. In the furniture example below, it comes to about 2.2 times the factory price, or 1.9 times once the IGST is claimed back.

The example is 100 office chairs in one 20ft container, bought FOB at ₹3,000 a chair and shipped to Nhava Sheva. The freight and port charges are mid-range values from the quotes above.

Bank transfer fees aren’t included. Office chairs have needed BIS since 13 February 2026, so this order would also have to come from a factory that holds the licence.

Three things stand out in the numbers:

• You need cash for well over double the goods value. ₹3 lakh of chairs takes about ₹6.7 lakh until the IGST credit comes back. That’s the realistic answer to “how much money do I need to start”.
• Duty is charged on freight too. Every rupee of freight also carries 47.5% in duties and IGST here, so a cheaper freight rate saves more than it seems.
• Per-shipment charges don’t shrink with the order. Port, delivery order, broker and trucking come to ₹72,000 here, or ₹720 a chair. On an order a tenth this size, those charges fall much less than the goods value does.

How to Import from China to India with Low Expense

Beyond choosing the right shipping mode, these cut the most cost:

• Claim APTA. If ICEGATE shows a preferential rate for your code, ask the supplier for an APTA certificate of origin before the goods ship.
• Classify correctly. Where two HS codes could apply, get your broker’s view before you order, not after the goods arrive. Under-declaring the value or using a lower-duty code on purpose is customs fraud, and it’s the fastest way to have a shipment held.
• Import in your own name with GST registration, so the 18% or 5% IGST comes back as credit rather than sitting in your cost.
• Get samples sent free of charge and marked as samples instead of buying them on a courier invoice.
• Avoid storage and detention charges by filing the Bill of Entry before arrival and having documents ready.
• Negotiate on price breaks and packaging. Carton size decides how many CBM you pay freight on.

Sometimes the cheapest option is not to import at all. If your order is a few cartons of a product that’s widely sold in India, buying from an Indian importer or a wholesale market such as Delhi’s Sadar Bazar can cost less than importing yourself, once duty and per-shipment charges are counted.

FAQ

What Are the Most Profitable Items to Import from China to India?

No product is profitable for everyone; what matters is your margin after landed cost. Products that tend to work for Indian importers share four traits: they aren’t under BIS, or licensed factories are easy to find; they sit in a lower duty band; they’re small and light, because freight is charged on weight and volume; and after all costs, they still undercut what the same item sells for on Amazon.in or Flipkart. Run the landed-cost numbers on any candidate before ordering. Our list of products to import from China is a starting point for ideas.

Who Can Help Me Import from China?

Three kinds of help cover different parts of the process. A sourcing agent in China finds and checks suppliers, negotiates, inspects goods before you pay the balance and consolidates orders. A freight forwarder moves the goods. A licensed customs broker in India clears them. Some companies cover more than one part. HiSourcing is a China sourcing agent working since 2017; we handle the China side for Indian buyers and can arrange shipping to India, including DDP.

What Items Are Exempt from Import Duty?

Very few, for a regular importer. Commercial samples are duty-free if you hold an IEC, the goods are clearly marked as samples, and you import no more than ₹3 lakh in value or 50 units in 12 months. Samples a supplier sends free by post, air or courier are duty-free up to ₹10,000 per consignment. Inputs for export production can be imported duty-free under an Advance Authorisation. APTA lowers duty on eligible goods but doesn’t remove it, and sending goods as “gifts” to avoid duty is blocked for courier imports.

What Happens If You Don’t Pay Duties on a Package?

A courier won’t deliver a parcel until the duty is paid. Unpaid parcels are held for a limited time, then returned to the sender or treated as abandoned, and you may still be charged for the return. For sea or air cargo, duty is due the day a self-assessed Bill of Entry is filed, or within one working day after assessment. After that, interest runs at 15% a year, port storage and container detention keep adding up, and goods not cleared within 30 days of unloading can be sold after notice to you.

Final Thoughts

Importing from China to India is less about finding products than about getting four things right before the goods move: confirm your product’s BIS status, run the landed-cost numbers, pay the invoicing company from your business account, and keep the Bill of Entry in your own name. Get those right and the rest is routine paperwork.

The China side is where we work every day: checking a factory’s BIS licence before an order is placed, inspecting goods before the balance is paid, and combining several suppliers into one shipment to India. If you’re planning a first order, tell us what you want to import and we’ll give you a straight answer on suppliers, BIS status and landed cost.

Talk to us about your import from China