Importing a Bike from the UK

Haroon · 26th January 2011, 12:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spitfire

And how long sould he have owned the vehicle before he can do all the above?

Continuously owned it minimum for 1 year abroad

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spitfire

Any resident indian can import a bike if he can pay 200%?

Yes, he can. Recently read about a guy in India who brought in a new 2010 Goldwing after paying all duties, penalties etc for a 'modest' Rs. 30 laks

ronaldfurtado · 26th January 2011, 17:11

I have done alot of research into importing a bike/car into india. Its not easy and its not cheap. Id rather wait for ducati to come to india. India, Africa, australia and canada. Im going to drop this idea. The finance to bring my bike would outweigh any satisfaction i can have. Might as well go to india and ask an importer to get it for you and pay more. Thanks for the tips guys.

Haroon · 26th January 2011, 18:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by ronaldfurtado

I have done alot of research into importing a bike/car into india. Its not easy and its not cheap. Id rather wait for ducati to come to india. India, Africa, australia and canada. Im going to drop this idea. The finance to bring my bike would outweigh any satisfaction i can have. Might as well go to india and ask an importer to get it for you and pay more. Thanks for the tips guys.

I didn't understand the India, Africa, Australia & Canada part? But if you are referring to Ducati in India, seems you dont have the updated information. Ducati already has a few official showrooms in India (yes with warranty) and more are opening up soon. They have sold a fair amount of bikes thru the dealerships already.

ronaldfurtado · 26th January 2011, 18:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Haroon

I didn't understand the India, Africa, Australia & Canada part? But if you are referring to Ducati in India, seems you dont have the updated information. Ducati already has a few official showrooms in India (yes with warranty) and more are opening up soon. They have sold a fair amount of bikes thru the dealerships already.

what i meant to say was that the other Africa, Australia and canada have the same issues of import as india does. Alot of hassle and expensive. I was not aware that ducati was in india. will look that up. But the initial intention was to ride around europe on my bike and then bring it to india. Just to note i do not own a triump or a ducati. lol

deutscheafrikar · 26th January 2011, 23:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pune_Bike

deutscheafrikar can you share details of some one who is shipping bikes or is ready to sell them in India. PM if you would choose to.

ready to sell I have no idea. but Sajid in mahim, mumbai may have bikes to sell. He always has. As for selling to firangs and crating and exporting the delhi bike dealers are famous for it. Quite a few of them. Used to be asking 500 quid to send it to the UK. If you want more info I can check on it.

Spitfire · 27th January 2011, 11:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Haroon

Continuously owned it minimum for 1 year abroad

And it can be New or Old? or is it common to both?

Quote:

Yes, he can.

So I can go abroad buy a bike there in my name. Come to India, go back after a year and get the bike along? Or I need to stay there for one year too?

Or I can buy a bike there and get it shipped here and pay all duty? Is it as simple as that?

Thanks for your answers.

I have these queries as I have a "friend" in Portugal who wants to send his bike down to Goa. Now he is a Portuguese citizen and wants to get his classic bike here. Problem is its not that simple. Other option he wants to try is show it as sold to me. With my trips abroad I can manage this. But then the residential clause and other stuff comes up.

Overall it sounds like a scam too. I am a salaried individual living a quite life. Just the want to help is making me look at options.

And everytime I think i have understood the import/export rules ti becomes a game of hopscotch.

deutscheafrikar · 27th January 2011, 13:04

Note from the Team-BHP Support Staff : Post edited. Typing a message which is not a value-addition to the topic being discussed, or is just entirely irrelevant is considered as “Spam” on this community.

Please discuss the classic bike via PM.

Thanks.

Haroon · 27th January 2011, 15:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spitfire

And it can be New or Old? or is it common to both?

So I can go abroad buy a bike there in my name. Come to India, go back after a year and get the bike along? Or I need to stay there for one year too?

Not as simple as that! Like I have mentioned in post# 6 of this thread, only NRIs are allowed to bring in a USED bike on TR. For your reference, I am pasting the para again here and the conditions for TR are outlined in it including the fact that - you should not have stayed for more than 6 months in India for the past 2 years. Besides, for example for a 4 year old bike they give you depreciation for 4 years (I have provided the link there for calculation of depreciation)

"Firstly, the bike should not be older than 15 years and you should have owned it abroad for atleast 1 year continuously. Speedo reading km or mile is no problem. Also no problems with emission standards etc. Just that you have to be eligible for TR, which is that- TR can be availed once every 3 years only and you should not have stayed in India for more than 6 months in the past 2 years. Anyway a complicated customs duty calculation process still means the customs & other levies work out to about 150% on the depreciated value as per their chart. All the same rules apply for diplomatic passport holders as well."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spitfire

Or I can buy a bike there and get it shipped here and pay all duty? Is it as simple as that?

As for a NEW bike, I have explained in my post# 11 under Permanent Importation, point (b)- that irrespective of NRI or a resident Indian, you can buy a bike abroad and immediately bring it into India, pay the customs + penalty (all put together close to 200%)

All said & done, it is absolutely necessary that you have a clearing agent in the Indian seaport who knows what he is doing, orelse you will end up going in circles with the documentation work. Atleast in Cochin seaport, my agent does a good job.

manson · 28th January 2011, 12:39

I highly recommend you searching for related threads in this section.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Randhawa

Arre baba if a used vehicle more then 3yrs old was allowed then I would have imported my E36 long way back under TOR. Rules under Carnet are totally different as you have to export within 6 months. I guess you would know better as you have all ready done it.

I'll straighten the story for you with a couple of examples:

Rpanicker's 97 ZX - 7 Ninja brought down by him in 2003, or was it 2004?
My last ride, Yamaha Thunderace 1999 brought down in 2003.
Prabhu's 919 was also older than three years when he brought it down in 2007.

Trust you me, I know of atleast a 'few' more people who have brought down cars and bikes older than three years legally, without really having to pull any strings whatsoever. Being patientwith the authorities really helps though.

manson.

mdsaab · 28th January 2011, 17:57

This is a very informative thread. I remember when we were returning to india, my grandfather wanting to bring down a brand new toyota space wagon. We spoke to the toyota dealership which was right under our house, they spoke to toyota who said they would ship it to india directly from japan. Eveything upto there sounded very good. We started to inquire about the TR process in india, which was cumbersome and unnecessarily complicated. So we decided to ditch the idea and ended up buying a humble maruti once we arrived. The point i am trying to make here is that the govt wants to make importing foreign vehicles to india as difficult as possible. They wanted to do this to protect the interest of the local manufacturers and to ensure the interest of foreign manufacturers setting up shop in india. But what they fail to see is that, if the person is importing a vehicle which will not affect local market conditions and manufacturers then why not allow people to do so. If its a passion and you have the money to spend on the absurdly high duty rate, then why not. Else forget about the idea.

sureshkishore · 30th January 2011, 00:21

A Doctor from UK had imported a 1995 BMW E36 M3 (AC schnitzer modded) a 1993 BMW E32 735i and a MB C250D (Think 96 model).The family had returned in TR back in 1999. As far as my knowledge, all are registered legally.
The pics of the M3 have been posted in the forum earlier.

The point is that legal import of cars is possible if you are returning in TR and provided you have owned the vehicle for a certain period of time.
If I had the chance and $$, I would dig out the rule books and go ahead an import some exotic bike or car.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/super-...ml#post1773710

zulfi hansi · 31st January 2011, 22:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spitfire

Legally you cant. Illegally you can.

But these days the government has got smarter. Not worth the effort if you need to keep hiding. The local RTO can do jack when the big fish come swimming.

Very rightly said, illegally you have a lot of options, I know I am completely out of line here, nevertheless, here you go- there are a lot of Bullet RTO papers even long after the bikes are scraped, now if at all you can manage to get (smuggle) the bike here, then its easy, it will be another modified bullet - on paper. Yes this is illegal as hell.

Sem80-88 · 16th December 2012, 17:57

Hi , a bit a information for anybody who is considering a move to India from UK . I wanted to bring back a number of things which I owned
SL, ZZR600, 14ft Fletcher speedboat( 80 bhp johnson V4 outboard) and most important the tools . there were some household goods as well

The car was left behind in the garage ( for use when we go to uk) . the boat will hopefully be imported later, once I have checked out the rules as there was nothing on the web. if anyone has any information on this please PM me.
the motorcycle is a ZZR600 D1 1990 which I had owned for quite some time and had been sitting in the garage while I had been going through new rides ( yamaha R6, triumph daytona, suzuki GSXR600 and the Fireblade which I sold before the move. )
having read a lot of articles about the importation of used bikes into India there was a lot of conflicting stuff out there.

well I can tell you what applied in my case.
>used motorcycles can only be imported via TR ( transfer of residence )
>you must own the motorcycle for at least 2 years
>The motorcycle is almost 21 years old ( so no rule that it cannot be more then 3 years or 15 years old)

>as I had owned the motorcycle for almost 17 years there was no invoice so the duty was calculated as per the value on my motorcycle insurance documents in the UK ( in my case I am not sure if it will apply in all case .it depends on the Customs officers )
> I shipped the motorcycle in the same container as household goods and baggage and as the duty is calculated on CIF ( cost ,insurance freight )
I had a two bills of entry one for the goods and one for the motorcycle other wise the customs would use the container invoice which would result in higher duty calculation.
> I paid a duty of 1,21,235/=

I think it is really not worth importing a motorcycle . then why did I ? well I had owned the bike for a number of years (it was lying in garage ) and I did not want to buy one in India as I knew I will not use it enough to justify spending 7 / 8 lacs .the container was coming anyway so the freight cost was saved. A 600cc 99bhp for 1.21 lacs is not bad.I do not know what will it cost to get it registered yet . ( I am not counting the initial cost as it was bought 16 years ago)

Ram · 25th October 2013, 15:03

A Bangalore-based friend of mine is temporarily living in Norway.
He wants to bring back to India, a 1995 Jawa 640 Classic motorcycle.
The motorcycle has a 2 stroke, 2 cylinder, 350 cc engine with electronic ignition, 23 bhp @ 5250 rpm, 31.38 Newton-metre at 4750 rpm, 18-inch wheels. Front disc brake. Rear drum brake. Has electric start, 4-speed gearbox with enclosed chain drive

Questions:

Import duty/cess structure on a 1994/95 bike?
Approx. freight cost to Bangalore, India?
Any special permissions required to import it into India?

26th January 2011, 17:11	#17
ronaldfurtado BHPian Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: London Posts: 38 Thanked: 3 Times	Re: Importing a Bike into india from UK I have done alot of research into importing a bike/car into india. Its not easy and its not cheap. Id rather wait for ducati to come to india. India, Africa, australia and canada. Im going to drop this idea. The finance to bring my bike would outweigh any satisfaction i can have. Might as well go to india and ask an importer to get it for you and pay more. Thanks for the tips guys.
	() Thanks

27th January 2011, 13:04	#22
deutscheafrikar Senior - BHPian Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Mumbai & Candolim Posts: 1,166 Thanked: 358 Times View My Garage	Re: Importing a Bike into india from UK Note from the Team-BHP Support Staff : Post edited. Typing a message which is not a value-addition to the topic being discussed, or is just entirely irrelevant is considered as “Spam” on this community. Please discuss the classic bike via PM. Thanks. Last edited by n_aditya : 28th January 2011 at 14:39.
	() Thanks

28th January 2011, 17:57	#25
mdsaab Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Pune Posts: 1,624 Thanked: 453 Times	Re: Importing a Bike into india from UK This is a very informative thread. I remember when we were returning to india, my grandfather wanting to bring down a brand new toyota space wagon. We spoke to the toyota dealership which was right under our house, they spoke to toyota who said they would ship it to india directly from japan. Eveything upto there sounded very good. We started to inquire about the TR process in india, which was cumbersome and unnecessarily complicated. So we decided to ditch the idea and ended up buying a humble maruti once we arrived. The point i am trying to make here is that the govt wants to make importing foreign vehicles to india as difficult as possible. They wanted to do this to protect the interest of the local manufacturers and to ensure the interest of foreign manufacturers setting up shop in india. But what they fail to see is that, if the person is importing a vehicle which will not affect local market conditions and manufacturers then why not allow people to do so. If its a passion and you have the money to spend on the absurdly high duty rate, then why not. Else forget about the idea.
	() Thanks

30th January 2011, 00:21	#26
sureshkishore BHPian Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: trivandrum Posts: 478 Thanked: 290 Times	Re: Importing a Bike into india from UK A Doctor from UK had imported a 1995 BMW E36 M3 (AC schnitzer modded) a 1993 BMW E32 735i and a MB C250D (Think 96 model).The family had returned in TR back in 1999. As far as my knowledge, all are registered legally. The pics of the M3 have been posted in the forum earlier. The point is that legal import of cars is possible if you are returning in TR and provided you have owned the vehicle for a certain period of time. If I had the chance and $$, I would dig out the rule books and go ahead an import some exotic bike or car. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/super-...ml#post1773710 Last edited by sureshkishore : 30th January 2011 at 00:33.
	() Thanks

16th December 2012, 17:57	#28
Sem80-88 BHPian Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Puranpur/London Posts: 126 Thanked: 586 Times View My Garage	The Move To India Hi , a bit a information for anybody who is considering a move to India from UK . I wanted to bring back a number of things which I owned SL, ZZR600, 14ft Fletcher speedboat( 80 bhp johnson V4 outboard) and most important the tools . there were some household goods as well The car was left behind in the garage ( for use when we go to uk) . the boat will hopefully be imported later, once I have checked out the rules as there was nothing on the web. if anyone has any information on this please PM me. the motorcycle is a ZZR600 D1 1990 which I had owned for quite some time and had been sitting in the garage while I had been going through new rides ( yamaha R6, triumph daytona, suzuki GSXR600 and the Fireblade which I sold before the move. ) having read a lot of articles about the importation of used bikes into India there was a lot of conflicting stuff out there. well I can tell you what applied in my case. >used motorcycles can only be imported via TR ( transfer of residence ) >you must own the motorcycle for at least 2 years >The motorcycle is almost 21 years old ( so no rule that it cannot be more then 3 years or 15 years old) >as I had owned the motorcycle for almost 17 years there was no invoice so the duty was calculated as per the value on my motorcycle insurance documents in the UK ( in my case I am not sure if it will apply in all case .it depends on the Customs officers ) > I shipped the motorcycle in the same container as household goods and baggage and as the duty is calculated on CIF ( cost ,insurance freight ) I had a two bills of entry one for the goods and one for the motorcycle other wise the customs would use the container invoice which would result in higher duty calculation. > I paid a duty of 1,21,235/= I think it is really not worth importing a motorcycle . then why did I ? well I had owned the bike for a number of years (it was lying in garage ) and I did not want to buy one in India as I knew I will not use it enough to justify spending 7 / 8 lacs .the container was coming anyway so the freight cost was saved. A 600cc 99bhp for 1.21 lacs is not bad.I do not know what will it cost to get it registered yet . ( I am not counting the initial cost as it was bought 16 years ago)
	(1) Thanks

25th October 2013, 15:03	#29
Ram Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Singapore, Mumbai, Nagpur Posts: 2,166 Thanked: 219 Times View My Garage	Request for information about importing an old mobike A Bangalore-based friend of mine is temporarily living in Norway. He wants to bring back to India, a 1995 Jawa 640 Classic motorcycle. The motorcycle has a 2 stroke, 2 cylinder, 350 cc engine with electronic ignition, 23 bhp @ 5250 rpm, 31.38 Newton-metre at 4750 rpm, 18-inch wheels. Front disc brake. Rear drum brake. Has electric start, 4-speed gearbox with enclosed chain drive Questions: Import duty/cess structure on a 1994/95 bike? Approx. freight cost to Bangalore, India? Any special permissions required to import it into India?
	() Thanks