Practice area · Customs
A wrong tariff heading or a missed FTA condition can turn a shipment into a demand and a detention. Get the classification, the valuation and the exemption, cited to source.
Customs law in India, governed by the Customs Act, 1962 and the Customs Tariff Act, covers duties on import and export, classification, valuation and exemptions. AskSolique answers customs questions with the exact tariff heading, section and notification cited.
Customs classification is where small readings have large consequences - one heading decides the duty on every future consignment of the same goods.
Why Customs is hard
Customs turns on the General Rules for Interpretation of the tariff - a strict, sequential heading-and-note analysis where the difference between two headings can be a duty percentage. Valuation runs on the transaction value read with the Customs Valuation Rules and a series of additions. On top sits a constant stream of exemption notifications, FTA rate schedules and CAROTAR origin conditions, plus CESTAT and Advance Ruling decisions that settle contested classifications. The bare tariff rarely gives the final answer - the current position is in a notification or a ruling.
What's broken in the way you work today
The right heading follows the interpretive rules and section notes in sequence. A plausible-sounding heading that skips a note is simply wrong - and expensive.
Ask a chatbot for an HSN or a duty rate and it returns a confident heading and percentage that may ignore the governing note or a superseding notification.
A concessional rate depends on satisfying rules of origin and holding a valid certificate under CAROTAR. Miss a condition and the benefit is denied at assessment.
A classification or valuation position applies to every future consignment of the same goods, so a single wrong call compounds across the whole import stream.
What happens if nothing changes
In customs, a wrong heading or under-valuation is recovered as differential duty with interest and penalty, the goods can be detained or confiscated, and - because the same treatment repeats on every consignment - the exposure multiplies across the entire import history until an audit or SIIB investigation surfaces it. A denied FTA benefit or a mis-read exemption turns an expected margin into a demand. Doing nothing means running the import stream on classifications taken once and never re-tested against the current tariff and notifications.
What has to change
Stop classifying from memory and stop trusting an uncited rate. The customs position should arrive with the tariff heading, the interpretive rule and section note behind it, the governing exemption or FTA notification, and the controlling CESTAT or Advance Ruling - from a corpus maintained as notifications issue - and it should connect to the GST angle of the same import, because indirect taxes move together.
Genuine use cases
Real fact patterns from trade and import work. Each returns the position with the exact heading, rule or notification attached.
IMPORT DESK
AskSolique runs the classification through the General Interpretive Rules and returns the heading and the tariff note that decides it, before the bill of entry is filed.
Cited to General Rules for Interpretation, Customs Tariff
TRADE COMPLIANCE
Compliance needs the origin position defensible. AskSolique checks the rules of origin and the CAROTAR documentation the certificate must carry.
Cited to CAROTAR Rules, 2020
FINANCE
Finance wants the drawback claimed correctly. AskSolique confirms the Sec 74/75 route that applies and the rate that follows from it.
Cited to Sec 74 & 75, Customs Act
Time saved goes straight to the judgment calls that need a partner, not a timesheet.
Headings come back grounded in the interpretive rules and section notes, not a plausible guess that skips a note.
Every valuation surfaces the Sec 14 basis and the addition it requires, so the duty base holds up on assessment.
FTA and drawback claims come with the origin and documentation conditions attached, so the benefit is not lost on a technicality.
Every position traces to the tariff, notification and ruling - the answer you can put in a reply to a customs query.
A quick check, a multi-part question, a full scenario - each comes back with the exact provision cited.
How is the assessable value for customs duty determined?
We import a component under an FTA route, re-export some of it after minor processing, and sell the rest domestically - work through the classification, the FTA concessional-rate eligibility, and the duty drawback position on the re-exported portion.
A shipment was provisionally assessed at a higher tariff heading than we believe applies, and customs is now proposing a demand with interest for the past two years of imports under that heading - assess the classification position, the limitation period, and the exposure if the department's heading prevails.
Start free, bring a real matter, and see the answer come back cited to the exact source. No card, no demo call.