Home / Shipping to India / How to Ship from China to India
How to Ship from China to India: Nhava Sheva, GST & BIS
India registers the importer before it looks at the cargo. No Import Export Code, no import — and that code is issued to an Indian entity with an Indian tax number and has to be kept alive. This is the first difference between India and almost every other lane in this series: on most routes you can book a container and sort out the paperwork while it sails. On this one, the paperwork comes first, and a lapsed code stops a shipment that is already on the water.
The second thing is that the duty you pay is not the duty you bear. Three charges stack on every import — basic customs duty, a surcharge calculated on that duty, and the integrated GST calculated on both — and only the last of them comes back to a registered business. Quote the wrong number to your finance team and the margin you thought you had disappears.
The third thing is that on this lane the delay is usually a registration, not a ship. A container of consumer electronics can cross in under three weeks and then sit in the yard because the product needed a compulsory registration that nobody applied for, or because the name on the importer's tax record does not quite match the name on the bill of lading. Both are avoidable. Neither is fixed by paying for faster freight.
If you read one section: get the IEC and check it is active before you place the order; confirm whether your product is on the compulsory registration list; and ask your broker for the duty, the surcharge and the IGST as three separate lines so you can see which of them is actually a cost.
How your cargo moves: China to India
Eight steps from your supplier's door to yours. The last four are the ones shaped by local rules.
- Pickup from your supplierWe collect the goods anywhere in China and bring them to our consolidation point.
- Export clearanceChina customs declaration filed and released before the goods move to the port.
- Loading and departureContainer loaded, sealed and handed to the carrier at the Chinese port.
- Main carriageOcean, air or rail movement booked on the route agreed for your cargo.
- Arrival at the gatewayDischarge at the port or airport of entry, recorded on the carrier's manifest.
- Import clearanceCustoms declaration filed locally, with duty and tax assessed on the declared value.
- Customs releaseGoods released into free circulation once duty and tax are settled.
- Final deliveryOnward movement to your delivery address, warehouse or nominated depot.
Duty rates, VAT rates and clearance times move, and the figure that applies to your goods is the one set for your commodity code on the day of clearance. We check the current position against your code before your goods sail and confirm it to you in writing — ask for that check when you request a quote.
The IEC, the code you cannot import into India without
The Import Export Code is a ten digit number issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade. It is tied to the importer's permanent account number, which means it belongs to an Indian entity rather than to a shipment or a company overseas. Commercial imports cannot be cleared without it, and the broker cannot file a Bill of Entry on an entity that does not hold one.
| What it is | Who issues it | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Import Export Code (IEC) | Directorate General of Foreign Trade | Ten digits, linked to the PAN. Applied for online, commonly reported as costing a few hundred rupees and issued within a few working days. It is a prerequisite to the first booking, not an afterthought. |
| PAN (permanent account number) | Income Tax Department | The entity's tax identity. The name and address on it must agree with the name on the bill of lading and the Bill of Entry. This single consistency requirement causes more holds than any tariff question. |
| GST registration | Goods and Services Tax network | Without it you cannot take credit for the integrated GST paid at import, which turns a recoverable cash-flow item into a real cost. |
| CHA licence | Indian Customs, to the broker | Only a licensed customs house agent may file the entry. This licence is the broker's, not yours, and it is the reason you cannot file your own commercial entry as a foreign business. |
| Product registrations | BIS, WPC, TEC, FSSAI and others | See the sections below. These belong to the product and to the Indian representative, and they gate release regardless of how clean the shipping documents are. |
There is one structural point that foreign buyers need to hear early. A company with no Indian presence cannot simply register as the importer of record. The code follows the PAN, and the PAN follows an Indian entity. Overseas businesses usually work through an Indian buyer who holds their own code, through a nominated importer of record, or under a specific arrangement a licensed broker can set out. Whichever it is, settle it in writing before the goods are built.
Nhava Sheva, Mundra, Chennai and the inland container depots
India has two dominant west coast gateways and a set of regional ports behind them, and the choice follows the delivery address rather than habit.
| Gateway | Region served | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Nhava Sheva (JNPT), Mumbai | Mumbai, Pune, western and central India | India's largest container port and the single biggest entry point for Chinese cargo. Volume brings services and frequency, and it also brings congestion: yard density and container dwell both rise in the pre-festive and pre-monsoon peaks. |
| Mundra, Gujarat | Gujarat, Rajasthan, northern India | Privately operated and the second major west coast gateway. Often the faster inland run for Gujarat and northern destinations, and worth quoting for anything bound for Ahmedabad or beyond. |
| Chennai | Tamil Nadu and the south | The southern gateway. Frequently quoted with shorter transit from South China than the west coast ports, which surprises people who assume Mumbai is always the default. |
| Kolkata | East and north-east India | Serves the eastern region and its hinterland, often through a transhipment, which is why transit runs longer than to the west coast. |
| Cochin, Visakhapatnam, Tuticorin | Their own regions | Smaller gateways that are worth asking about where the consignee sits nearby, because they can remove a long inland leg. |
| Inland container depots | Delhi NCR and other inland centres | The India-specific part. For an inland consignee, the container is typically railed from the seaport to an ICD and clearance happens at the ICD, not at the port. A quote to Nhava Sheva for a Gurugram consignee has not quoted the shipment. |
| Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru airports | Air freight | Mumbai and Delhi take the bulk of air cargo from China, with Chennai and Bengaluru depending on where the consignee is. |
Ask one question before you compare quotes: is this to the gateway port, or to the inland depot where the consignee will actually clear? The rail leg, the handling at the depot and the storage there are all real costs, and a quote that stops at the seaport will look cheaper and cost more.
How long into India by vessel and aircraft
| Mode | Typical transit | When it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Ocean FCL, South China to Nhava Sheva | Commonly around fourteen to twenty days port to port | Regular volume, and the default for anything above roughly fifteen cubic metres. |
| Ocean FCL, Shanghai or Ningbo to Nhava Sheva or Mundra | Commonly around fifteen to twenty two days | East China origins. The spread is the service, not the distance: direct sailings sit at the short end and transhipment services at the long end. |
| Ocean FCL to Chennai | Commonly around twelve to eighteen days from South China | Southern consignees. Often shorter than the west coast, which is worth checking before you default to Mumbai. |
| Ocean FCL to Kolkata | Commonly around eighteen to twenty five days | Eastern consignees, with the longer figure reflecting services that tranship. |
| Ocean LCL | Vessel time plus consolidation and deconsolidation at both ends | Trial orders and part loads. Ask what deconsolidation costs at the Indian end before you commit, because it is not small. |
| Air freight | Around three to seven days airport to airport | Urgent, high value density, samples, components, and anything waiting on a product registration. |
| Express courier | A few days door to door | Documents, samples and small parcels. Still subject to duty and tax assessment once the value or the nature of the goods crosses the line. |
Clearance on a complete file is commonly one to three working days, and materially longer where the entry is examined or where a product registration is missing. We do not publish freight rates here. Ask for base freight, origin charges in China, destination charges in India, duty, surcharge, IGST and the inland or ICD leg as separate lines, so you can see what moved when the price changes. See our local charges page.
The Bill of Entry, and the licensed broker who must file it
The Bill of Entry is the import declaration, and it is filed electronically by a licensed customs house agent rather than by the importer. Filing before the vessel or aircraft arrives is possible and it is what keeps containers moving, because Indian terminals charge demurrage on containers held past their free time and detention on equipment kept past it, and the free time is short.
Classify at eight digits
Goods are classified under the Indian Trade Clarification, or ITC-HS, code, which runs to eight digits. That code drives the basic duty rate, whether the product is regulated, whether a preferential certificate helps, and whether an anti-dumping measure attaches to it. Do not copy the Chinese export code onto the Indian entry. Take the classification from someone who will be liable for it.
Upload the documents and take an image reference number
Supporting documents are uploaded through the e-Sanchit facility, which returns an image reference number that is then linked to the Bill of Entry. The point of it is that you do not present paper for each document at each filing. It does not replace the documents themselves.
File the entry, by type
The common types are a home consumption entry for goods being cleared straight into the market, a warehousing entry for goods going into a bonded warehouse with duty deferred, and an ex-bond entry when they later come out of it. Which one you file determines when duty is payable, and it is a genuine cash-flow decision on high-value cargo.
Let the risk management system route it
Indian customs runs risk-based selection. A low risk entry can be assessed by the system and cleared. Others go to faceless assessment, where an officer in a different location reviews the file. Some go to examination, which is when a container is opened and the working days start to add up. The routing is driven by the declaration, the importer's history and the classification.
Pay, and take the out-of-charge
Duty, surcharge and IGST are paid, and the out-of-charge order releases the goods into the importer's hands or into the inland leg. Nothing moves before that. Where the goods are being railed to an inland depot, the sequence happens there rather than at the seaport.
Keep the file for years
Post-clearance audit reaches back well beyond the entry. Keep invoices, proofs of payment, certificates, specifications and classification reasoning from the first shipment, because rebuilding a file three years later is far more expensive than keeping one.
Incoterms on an India booking, and who may hold the IEC
The trade term divides cost and risk. It does not give you an Import Export Code, and it does not remove a product registration.
- EXW — you collect at the supplier's door and carry everything, including Chinese export formalities. Rarely sensible for a first import.
- FOB — the supplier loads and clears Chinese export; you take over at the Chinese port. The usual choice for experienced buyers.
- CIF — the supplier pays freight and insurance to the Indian port, risk passes in China, and you still clear. Not delivered.
- DAP — delivered to a named place in India, with you handling clearance, duty and taxes. Note that "a named place" needs to be the inland depot or the consignee's door, not just Nhava Sheva.
- DDP — the seller carries duty and taxes too, which requires an Indian party holding a valid IEC and a licensed broker to file. Ask who holds the record and who is liable, because a DDP offer with no Indian importer named is not a DDP offer.
Registering the IEC, and the annual update that quietly cancels it
The application is made online to the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, against the entity's PAN, and is commonly reported as costing a few hundred rupees and being issued within a few working days. That part is easy. The part that catches importers out is what happens afterwards.
The update requirement is the trap. The IEC has to be updated periodically, and the updating window is tied to the financial year. A code that has not been updated is deactivated. A deactivated code does not produce a polite reminder — it produces a Bill of Entry that will not file, on a container that is already discharging. Check the status of the code before every peak season, not once at the start.
Two more details belong on the same checklist. The details on the code must match the PAN, and both must match the bill of lading and the Bill of Entry. And the code belongs to the entity, so if you change your importer of record, you change the code, and every registration tied to the old one needs review.
One consignment from Shenzhen, followed to a factory in Pune
Pune is one of the largest manufacturing centres in western India and a routine destination for Chinese components. This is what a normal shipment into it looks like.
Confirm the importer can import at all
Before the purchase order: the IEC exists, it is active, the GST registration exists, and the product is checked against the compulsory registration list. If any of those is missing, the freight quote is the least of the problems.
Collect, consolidate, and clear Chinese export
Goods are collected from the factory, or from several factories and consolidated, cleared for export, weighed for the verified gross mass, and loaded. See our consolidated shipment page if you are buying from more than one supplier.
Sail to Nhava Sheva
Roughly fourteen to twenty days port to port from South China. This is the part everyone plans for and the part that is most predictable.
Decide where it clears
For a Pune consignee, the container either clears at Nhava Sheva and trucks inland, or moves to an inland depot. Which one is cheaper and faster depends on the service and on the depot, and it should be decided when you book, not when the vessel berths.
Assess and pay the three charges
The broker files the entry with the eight digit code, the duty and surcharge are assessed, IGST is charged on the total, and the payment is made. If the importer is GST registered and selling domestically, the IGST becomes credit rather than cost.
Release, and the inland run
Out-of-charge, then the road or rail leg to Pune. Watch the free time at every step: storage at the port, storage at the depot, and detention on the equipment all run on separate clocks.
Basic customs duty, the welfare surcharge, and the IGST
Three charges stack on an Indian import, and each one has a different base. Getting the bases right is the whole exercise.
| Charge | Base | Rate | Creditable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic customs duty | The assessed value, built up from the CIF value | Product specific, commonly zero to around thirty percent on ordinary goods and higher on some lines | No |
| Social welfare surcharge | Ten percent of the basic customs duty, not of the goods | 10% of the duty amount | No |
| Integrated GST | Assessed value plus basic duty plus the surcharge | 5%, 12%, 18% or 28% by product | Yes, for a GST registered importer making taxable supplies |
| Anti-dumping duty | Product and origin specific, on top of the above | Set by notification per product | No |
A worked example, because the compounding is easier to see in rupees. Take a consignment with a CIF value of ten lakh rupees and a basic duty rate of 7.5 percent:
- Basic customs duty: 7.5% of 10,00,000 = 75,000 rupees
- Social welfare surcharge: 10% of the 75,000 duty = 7,500 rupees
- Base for IGST: 10,00,000 + 75,000 + 7,500 = 10,82,500 rupees
- IGST at 18%: 1,94,850 rupees
- Total paid at the port: 2,77,350 rupees
Two numbers, not one. The importer pays 2,77,350 rupees at the port. If they are GST registered and sell the goods domestically, 1,94,850 of that comes back as input tax credit, so the true cost of the import is the 82,500 rupees of duty and surcharge. If they are not registered, or the goods are not used to make taxable supplies, the whole 2,77,350 is cost. Same container, two completely different landed costs. Rates and the structure should be confirmed against the current tariff and with your broker before you price a deal.
Where the IGST is creditable and the duty is not
This distinction decides whether an import programme works, and it is worth stating plainly.
What comes back
The integrated GST paid at import is input tax credit. Against output tax on a domestic sale it is set off, so for a trading or manufacturing business it is a timing item: money out at the port, recovered through the return. The mechanism only works if the importer is GST registered and the imports feed taxable supplies — put those two conditions in writing before you model the margin.
What does not
Basic customs duty is cost. The social welfare surcharge is cost, and because it is calculated on the duty rather than on the goods it grows with the duty rate. Anti-dumping duty is cost. So is any penalty, any storage and any demurrage. When you are comparing a Chinese source against a domestic Indian one, it is these figures, not the IGST, that determine the answer.
BIS CRS, and the Indian representative you have to appoint
The compulsory registration scheme run by the Bureau of Indian Standards is the single most common reason a Chinese electronics shipment into India sits in the yard. It is a product registration, it is model by model, and it is not something a forwarder can obtain on your behalf.
What it covers, and what it costs in time
The list runs to well over a hundred product categories and keeps growing: laptops, tablets, servers, power adapters, routers, monitors, printers, UPS units, LED lamps, CCTV equipment, power banks, wireless earphones, smart watches, keyboards and solar modules among them. Testing is done in a recognised laboratory, test reports have a limited validity at the point of application, and registration is granted per model. Practitioners commonly report several weeks from a complete application, before any query.
Goods that require registration and arrive without it are held. This is not a fine you pay at the gate — it is a container in storage while an application is made that should have been made months earlier.
The Authorised Indian Representative
Here is the part that surprises overseas manufacturers: a foreign factory cannot hold the registration in its own name. It must appoint an Authorised Indian Representative, an Indian entity that applies for and holds the registration and carries the obligations that go with it. There is also a separate scheme for certifying overseas manufacturing sites directly, which suits high-volume manufacturers with their own plant.
Because the AIR holds the registration, choose it carefully. It is a commercial relationship, not a formality, and changing it later means touching every registration under it.
WPC, MTCTE, BEE and FSSAI: the approvals behind the registration
BIS is the big one, and it is not the only one. Four more approvals catch importers out, and each has a different owner.
WPC and MTCTE, for anything that transmits
Wireless equipment needs equipment type approval from the Wireless Planning and Coordination Wing, and even devices operating in licence-exempt bands need an import clearance rather than a blanket exemption. Telecoms and network equipment — firewalls, switches, routers, gateways — fall instead under mandatory testing and certification by the Telecommunication Engineering Centre. Both are model specific and both are quoted in weeks, not days.
BEE and FSSAI
The Bureau of Energy Efficiency runs the star labelling programme for appliances such as refrigerators, air conditioners, televisions, washing machines, fans and LED lamps. Note that the label and the BIS registration can both apply to the same product — they are not alternatives. Food imports need the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India: an importer licence, and clearance at the point of entry where a laboratory analysis may be ordered. A supplier's certificate of analysis is not a substitute for either.
Drugs, cosmetics and medical devices sit with the central drugs authority, and plastic packaging, e-waste and batteries each carry extended producer responsibility obligations on the importer. None of these are shipping documents. All of them are prerequisites to release.
Legal Metrology, and the artwork approved before production starts
Pre-packaged goods sold by weight or measure fall under legal metrology, and the requirement that catches importers is timing. The packaging artwork has to be correct before the goods are produced, because the declarations — net quantity, maximum retail price, country of origin, the importer's name and address, and the consumer care details — are printed on the pack. Reprinting a finished run in China is expensive; re-labelling under customs supervision is worse.
Registration of the importer under the packaging rules is separate from having an IEC. If you are importing packaged food, cosmetics or household consumables, put the artwork review on the critical path alongside the product registration, not after it.
Anti-dumping duty, advance rulings, and the schemes that remove duty
Anti-dumping duty, and why it is checked per code
India maintains a large number of anti-dumping measures on Chinese products, across chemicals, steel, pharmaceutical intermediates, fibres and consumer goods. They are product and origin specific, they expire and they are renewed, and they are imposed on top of the basic duty with no credit available. There is no general answer to "does it apply to China" — the only useful answer comes from checking the notification against your exact eight digit code, and re-checking it before each season.
Advance rulings, and the schemes for exporters
If the classification or the valuation is genuinely uncertain, an advance ruling gives a binding answer before the goods ship rather than an argument after they land. Separately, businesses that import inputs to produce exports may use authorisation schemes that relieve or defer the duty — an advance authorisation, or the export promotion capital goods scheme for capital equipment. Both are conditional on actually exporting, and both are administered against the importer's own record.
Where the supplier and the importer are related parties, expect questions on the declared value, and expect the valuation to be examined on a continuing basis rather than once. Where a preference is claimed, the certificate has to be in order at the time of import — see the next point on why that is more sensitive here than on most lanes.
The name on the PAN, and the name on the bill of lading
Indian customs runs identity checks on the importer, and the requirement is plain: the name and address on the tax record, on the transport document and on the Bill of Entry have to agree. A private limited company that trades under a shorter brand name, a group importing on a sister company's code, a consignee whose address changed last year — each of these produces a mismatch, and each mismatch produces a query that a clean declaration would have avoided.
The same rule extends to the description of the goods. Vague descriptions invite examination, and Indian customs holds historical price data that it uses to question values that look implausible. Declare what was paid and be able to prove it.
Ordering through a platform, and importing under your own code
Through a platform
Small parcels are assessed and released, and for a sample or a single replacement part that is genuinely convenient. What the platform route does not give you is control: no choice of classification, no product registration held in your name, no ability to claim a preference, and no file that will survive an audit.
For a business that intends to import repeatedly, the platform is a way to test demand. It is not a supply chain, and the registrations that matter still belong to someone.
Under your own code
You hold the IEC, you choose the classification, you hold or arrange the registrations, you control the packing and the description, and you build a record that will answer a post-clearance audit years later. It is more work in the first month and far cheaper per unit at any scale.
It is also the only route that lets you take the IGST credit, which on this lane is usually the single largest number on the assessment.
Importing to resell, and importing to manufacture
The paperwork is similar and the economics are not, and the difference runs through the IGST.
- Resale — you are GST registered, you sell domestically, and the integrated GST paid at import is set against the tax you collect. Your real cost is the duty, the surcharge and any anti-dumping duty. Note that resale means the goods must carry their Indian labelling and any applicable standard mark before they reach the shelf.
- Manufacture — the same credit applies, and the duty relief schemes may apply as well if the output is exported. The additional requirements are the input registrations: if the components you bring in are themselves on the compulsory list, they need registration before they are imported, not before the finished product is sold.
- Capital equipment — machinery for your own plant is assessed the same way, and the credit question depends entirely on what you produce with it. Model it before you order, because the sums are large.
The China forwarder and the Indian customs broker
What happens in China
Collecting from the factory or from several factories, consolidating where volume justifies it, Chinese export clearance, the verified gross mass, booking the service, issuing the bill of lading or air waybill, and tracking. We also check that the invoice, packing list and any certificate describe the same goods in the same words, and we flag products that look like they might sit on a registration list.
What happens in India
A licensed customs house agent files the Bill of Entry on the importer's IEC, classifies at eight digits, uploads the documents, answers assessment queries, settles the duty, surcharge and IGST, and arranges the out-of-charge. The IEC, the GST registration, BIS registration and the AIR, WPC or MTCTE approvals, FSSAI licensing and legal metrology registration belong to the importer and their advisers.
Goodhope works port to port on ocean freight and airport to airport on air freight, naming the terminal rather than quoting a generic estimate, and quoting the inland depot where that is where the consignee will clear. We coordinate with your broker and we do not pretend to do their job.
Checking a forwarder on an India booking
- Have they asked whether the importer holds an active IEC? Everything else is downstream of that question.
- Which gateway — Nhava Sheva, or Mundra for a Gujarat or northern consignee? It should follow the delivery address.
- If the consignee is inland, is the quote to the depot? A Nhava Sheva quote for a Gurugram consignee is missing the rail leg and the clearance point.
- Has anyone checked whether the product is on the compulsory registration list? BIS, WPC or MTCTE are the slow items and they gate release.
- Is there an anti-dumping measure on this code? Ask specifically, per code, and check the currency of the answer.
- Are the duty, the surcharge and the IGST shown separately? A single all-in number hides which part is cost and which part is credit.
- Has anyone asked for the eight digit classification? Without it, no quote is honest.
Red flags: a rate quoted before you have said what the goods are; a DDP offer with no Indian importer named; advice to declare a lower value to soften the IGST, which is both an audit risk and the wrong way to reduce a creditable charge; and any suggestion that the registration can be sorted out after the container lands.
Three shipments into India, and the reason for each
The examples below are illustrative. They describe typical decisions on this lane, not specific customer shipments.
Components that cleared in two days, because the registration was already in hand
A container of electronic components into Nhava Sheva for a Pune assembly plant. The duty was routine and the file was clean, and the entry cleared in about two working days. What made that possible was decided months earlier: the components sat on the compulsory registration list, the manufacturer had appointed an Indian representative and registered the models before the first purchase order, and the importer's IEC and GST registration were both active and matched the bill of lading. The freight was unremarkable. The preparation was the whole difference.
Consumer electronics that sat, because registration was treated as paperwork
A container of finished consumer devices, same port, same week. The importer had an IEC and a broker and everything looked ready. The goods were on the compulsory list and nobody had applied. The container moved from the yard into storage and stayed there for the length of an application that should have been running while the goods were being built. The freight on that shipment was a small part of what it ended up costing.
A Chennai consignment that beat Mumbai on transit, and surprised the buyer
A first-time importer in Tamil Nadu booked through Nhava Sheva out of habit, trucked the container south and paid for the inland leg twice over. On the repeat order the same cargo came into Chennai on a shorter transit and a fraction of the inland run. The lesson is not that one port is better: it is that the gateway should be chosen from the consignee's address, and on this lane the obvious choice is often wrong.
Diwali, the monsoon and the Nhava Sheva yard
- The south-west monsoon, roughly June to September, slows port operations and inland transport across the west coast, and it is the season when yard congestion and dwell times build.
- Diwali, in October or November, is the peak import season. Bookings and yard density both run ahead of it, and the weeks around the festival itself close offices and labour.
- The end of the financial year in March produces its own surge, as businesses complete imports before the year closes and as policy changes are typically announced in the budget that precedes it.
- Holi and the regional new year festivals close offices in different states on different dates, and a national holiday calendar will not tell you which ones matter for your consignee's state.
- Chinese New Year stops production on the Chinese end, and the weeks before it compress bookings.
Check our holidays page when you are fixing a production date, and add slack to any Indian delivery promise made between June and September or in the run-up to Diwali.
What Goodhope handles on the India lane
- We ask the importer question first — an active IEC and a GST registration, because without them nothing else can be filed.
- Ocean freight port to port and air freight airport to airport — into Nhava Sheva, Mundra, Chennai, Kolkata or the regional gateways, and into Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai or Bengaluru by air, with the terminal named rather than a generic estimate.
- We quote the place you will actually clear — including the inland container depot where the consignee sits away from the coast.
- We ask for the eight digit classification before we quote — because it drives duty, whether an anti-dumping measure attaches, and which certificate or registration pays.
- We flag the registration calendar — BIS compulsory registration, WPC or MTCTE approvals and FSSAI licensing identified early, because these are the slow items and they gate release.
- We chase the certificate before departure — and we tell you plainly when there is no preference available for your code.
- We check the cheap things — ISPM 15 on wood packaging, a description on the invoice that will not invite an examination, and consistency between the importer's details and the transport document.
- Consolidation across suppliers — several factories, one container, one consistent document set. See our consolidated shipment and warehouse and consolidation pages.
- Regulated cargo handled properly — see our dangerous goods, reefer containers to India and quarantine inspection pages.
- Plain answers on what we do not do — the IEC, GST registration, BIS registration and the Indian representative, WPC and MTCTE approvals, FSSAI licensing, legal metrology registration, and the duty itself belong to the importer of record and their broker. We coordinate with them and we do not pretend otherwise.
- NVOCC licensed, since 2012 — see our why partner with Goodhope page.
Why importers use Goodhope on this lane
Six things that are different about working with us on China to India shipments.
Ask for an India quote with the duty and the IGST split out
Send us the product and its eight digit classification if you have it, the carton count and total weight or volume, the declared value, the supplier's city, and the delivery address in India — including whether the consignee is inland. We will name the gateway and the clearance point, flag any registration the product needs, tell you whether an anti-dumping measure is worth checking on your code, and show the duty, the surcharge and the IGST as separate lines so you can see which of them is cost.
Frequently asked questions
What is an IEC and do I need one to import into India?
The Import Export Code is a ten digit code issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade and linked to the importer's permanent account number, or PAN. Commercial imports into India cannot be cleared without it, so it has to exist before the first booking, not during it. The application is online and is commonly reported as costing a few hundred rupees and being issued within a few working days. One detail catches people out every year: the code requires periodic updating, and an IEC that has not been updated is deactivated. A deactivated code stops a shipment that has already sailed.
Can a foreign company with no Indian entity import into India?
Not in its own name on a standard commercial import. The IEC is tied to an Indian PAN, so a company with no Indian presence cannot simply register as an importer of record. The usual workarounds are to sell to an Indian company that holds its own code, to appoint an Indian importer of record or a merchant importer, or to have the goods imported under a specific arrangement with a licensed broker. Whichever route you take, name the importer of record in writing before the cargo sails, because the name on the PAN, on the bill of lading and on the Bill of Entry has to agree.
How much duty and tax will I pay importing into India?
Three charges stack on top of the customs value, and each has its own base. Basic customs duty is assessed on the assessed value, which is built up from the CIF value, and rates run widely by product. The social welfare surcharge is ten percent of the basic customs duty, not of the goods. Integrated GST is charged at five, twelve, eighteen or twenty eight percent on the value plus the duty plus the surcharge. On top of that, specific product lines carry anti-dumping duty. As an illustration, a consignment with a CIF value of ten lakh rupees at 7.5 percent basic duty gives 75,000 rupees of duty, 7,500 rupees of surcharge and 1,94,850 rupees of integrated GST at eighteen percent.
Is the IGST paid on imports refundable in India?
Yes, if you are registered for GST and you use the imported goods to make taxable supplies. The integrated GST paid at import is available as input tax credit against your output tax, so for a trading or manufacturing business it is cash flow rather than cost. Basic customs duty and the social welfare surcharge are not creditable and are a real cost in every case, as is any anti-dumping duty. If you are not GST registered, or you import for a use that does not generate taxable output, the integrated GST is a cost too, and your landed cost is the whole stack.
How long does shipping from China to India take?
Ocean freight from South China into Nhava Sheva is commonly quoted at around fourteen to twenty days port to port, with Shanghai and Ningbo origins a little longer at around fifteen to twenty two days. Mundra is broadly similar to Nhava Sheva. Chennai is often quoted shorter from South China at around twelve to eighteen days, and Kolkata longer at around eighteen to twenty five, because many services reach it through a transhipment. LCL adds consolidation and deconsolidation time at both ends. Air freight is around three to seven days airport to airport depending on the origin and the Indian airport. Clearance on a complete file is commonly one to three working days, and materially longer where the entry is examined.
Which port does cargo from China arrive at in India?
Nhava Sheva, the Jawaharlal Nehru Port near Mumbai, is India's largest container port and takes the largest share of imports from China. Mundra in Gujarat is the other major west coast gateway and is privately operated. Chennai serves the south, Kolkata serves the east, and Cochin, Visakhapatnam and Tuticorin serve their own regions. If the consignee is inland, the container is usually railed to an inland container depot such as those serving Delhi NCR, and clearance happens there rather than at the seaport. Ask which of the two your quote covers.
Do I need BIS certification to import electronics into India?
For a long and growing list of products, yes. The compulsory registration scheme covers electronics and IT goods including laptops, tablets, servers, power adapters, routers, monitors, printers, UPS units, LED lamps, CCTV equipment, power banks, wireless earphones, smart watches, keyboards and solar modules, among others. Registration is model by model, testing has to be done in a recognised laboratory, and the registration is granted to an Indian entity. A foreign manufacturer cannot hold it directly and must appoint an Authorised Indian Representative. Goods that need registration and arrive without it are held at customs. Registration is commonly reported as taking several weeks, so start it before the goods are built, not after they sail.
Is there a free trade agreement between China and India?
No. India announced in 2019 that it was not joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, and there is no bilateral free trade agreement between China and India. The only preferential route available is the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement, which China and India are both parties to, and it works on a published positive list of concessions rather than across the board. The practical consequences are two. Check whether your HS code is actually on that list before you assume the certificate is worth anything, and apply for the certificate in China at the time of export, because certificates under that agreement are not issued retroactively once the goods have gone.
What is anti-dumping duty and does it apply to goods from China?
Anti-dumping duty is an additional duty imposed on specific products from specific origins where a domestic industry has shown injury, and it is charged on top of the basic customs duty. India maintains a substantial number of these measures on Chinese products across chemicals, steel, pharmaceuticals intermediates, fibres and consumer goods. The measures are product specific and they expire and are renewed, so the only reliable answer is to check the current notification for your exact HS code. Two things to remember: anti-dumping duty is not creditable against GST, so it is pure cost, and it is assessed against the origin of the goods rather than against the country you shipped from.
What documents does Indian customs require?
A commercial invoice, a packing list, and a bill of lading or airway bill, plus the Bill of Entry filed by a licensed customs broker on the electronic customs platform. Supporting documents are uploaded through the e-Sanchit facility and referenced to the entry by an image reference number, which avoids presenting paper for each one. Depending on the product you will also need a certificate of origin if you are claiming a preference, product registrations such as BIS, and sector approvals for food, wireless or telecoms equipment. The name and address details on the importer's tax records have to match those on the transport document and the entry, and mismatches are among the most common causes of delay.