Today I posting something really unusual here but its the most sought information for many living abroad and trying to import some of electronics stuff back to India. May be this information is not useful to you for now but who knows in future you travel and would like bring home something like LED TVs and other devices.
I am in India for a really a short visit( will be leaving this afternoon), just three days but the travel this time was nothing less than an adventure. Just few days before i made a plan to come home and mom asked if I can get a LCD or LED TV for her. She used a very small and a bad CRT TV for a decade. I decided to buy a LED TV for her.
As you all know I work for Samsung Electrionics in Korea I ordered the TV through our internal system and got it for best possible price anywhere in the world. I bought a 46 inch 3D LED smart TV with wireless internet connectivity and other advanced features. 
The big headache was to was to carry that huge baby to India and between the airports. To save time I was travelling through one the worst airports in India (Mumbai). Every one told me about customs there are worst in India. But I had no choice but try this out.
Customs Duty On Electronic Import Items
Legally its free to bring anything inside that cost around 25000 INR. Apart from that we need to pay around 37% of the cost as import duty. Usually the prices are defined by the officers on duty not the bills you carry, specially in Mumbai, and there is lot of bribery at different levels.
The simple tax calculation is as below
Cost of TV : 45000
Cost Allowed : 25000
Discount :Negotiate
———————————
Total Amount on which tax is paid: 20000 (with 37% and 0% discount the import duty is 7400 INR)
You need to deal with custom officer for discount and offer him something in return. In Mumbai there are hell lot of brokers who put you in queue of bribers and you will suck your life for hours and you end up paying around half of the original cost.
I saw people negotiating with custom officers and make deals. Its a total crapy system in place and officer would give someone as good as 60% discount on original price and for few other people he will give as less as 0%. Just need to deal with these guys politely or pay the amount and walk away. They will see you will anger when pay all go ahead. Just ignore them and walk your way.
For me it was hell making transfers between international and domestic airports with such huge TV. Mumbai have different domestic and international airports, that also make it a bad choice if you are traveling to other destinations in India.
By hook or crook I reached my destination with an hour delay in domestic flight. My brother was waiting for me patiently, took me home safely 
A final piece of advice to people who want to get LCD/ LED TVs to home is to avoid any middle man at the airport, just go and talk to Custom duty officer and negotiate the discount, you will pay much less custom duty. If you get into middle man stuff you end up paying much more.
If you can take pain of carrying excess size baggage and moving a large screen TV in airports, it is a great investment specially friends living in US and friends who get discounts on electronic products. Its worth paying your handwork because LEDs/LCDs are way expensive.
Last but not least, India uses a different TV signal encoding method (PAL), whereas US and Korea uses NTSC TV signal. I will tell how to convert PAL to NTSC in India to get HD channels on an awesome TV in next post.
Have good time and stay focused. This post is just an information and experience sharing
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Since GATE is heading up in less than 3 weeks, some posts about GATE will be great things to read. There are many aspects to write like last week revision, what to do n not to do on last day before exam and on exam day. etc etc.
hey dude
Thanks, it would help a little because I am very much afraid of this corrupt system.
WELCOME BACK!
Reading the headline of the post, I felt that you are trying to show-off but after reading the complete article, I felt that it’s awesome as it used to be.
Why you had not purchased the TV from India itself, just for saving 100 bucks. It’s really an overhead to carry such a huge appliance while travelling. You should take the help of courier companies for bringing it to India.
I don’t feel that you will face any problem between the PAL (720×480) & NTSC (720×576) signals in a TV whose resolution is 1920x1080i or 1920x1080p. If you are using 5 or 3 component cable port, TV adjust itself.
The problem occurs only in the antena port which is rarely used now a days. So, if you are using cable channels at home (which I don’t think), then it will create problems; in DTH, you can use the component cable port.
I feel that rated voltage frequency might create problems as in US, it’s at 60Hz & in India, it’s at 50Hz!
Awesome Mohit. What a deep insight, never saw someone discussing in that depth before. NTSC and PAL is still an issue in India when we dont use HD satellite connection. As you said we can use component cable at 50Hz. but you wont enjoy the high quality HD. Luckily few companies are supporting HDMI cables, that help to reach 60Hz super fine HD quality.
i also wrote a post on how to convert from PAL to NTSC and reach 60Hz.
I bought it from Korea because I get heavy discounts, which are incomparable to prices anywhere in world. Courier companies dont transfer electronic goods until we show an import licence or something similar to it : (
nice job boss…i love to see ur dedication and love towards taking smthing to home
Corruption is like a Headache inside the India now. Corruption has reached inside the veins of the body & it is making officers more lazy & irresponsible at their work
I hope a strong “LOKPAL-Bill” passes early; this will restrict corruption in some extent for coming years.
By the way Zahid Sir; Samsung LED TV looks great & big enough so congrats for that.
I want to ask one thing; In India we use 240V & 50Hz as standard electric input whereas US/Canada use 120V & 60Hz (not 100% sure about values).
So does it matters really & if it matters then we can not run TV Set which is made for US/Canada !!!!
Wish you happy Return journey
Finally; All the best luck for all the GATE 2012 aspirants & hope that we all get good college for PG’s
hey man you paid bribe and here with this post you are promoting it too. Dont you feel bad about it.
Sorry dude I didnt paid the bribe. I negotiated on discount. Everyone can do that
but it depends how much one can. I wish there would have been a flat system and I love flat rates.
even i am planning to buy an led tv in INDIA……..can u help me out …i want 2 know which led is d best and even discount …….help me out plz….
I guess you should head over to hifivision.
I thought this forum was ” all about education”.. Your usIn to crap about the things that happened in your life … This is the second time am seein such shit
Sorry to disappoint its not shit. Millions of indian are looking for this information and i was one among them without any clear answers. This will help all of them and educate them about the stuff they dont know.
I am somehow starting to doubt that this website is turning away from a serious gate
discussion site to SAMSUNG electronics advertisement site. Pls Post meaningful experiences Zahid sir. Hope to hear somethin abt the GATE exam tats jus 2 weeks ahead.
Maddy, i totally agree with you. GATE is just two weeks away and I am on a post for that. This is information was needed by lots of NRI Indian and perfectly need of an hour. I was looking for this info and couldn’t get it. Thats why posted it, and hope this will you all one day when you travel from abroad to back home. GATE posts are coming dont worry about it.
@Zahid sir,
kindly checkout the link from IIT site. This year they are doing something GOOD
http://www.gate.iitb.ac.in/2k12/gate2012/orsdetails.php
Thanks for posting this. I was just looking for this information and it was very insightful. Knowing the rate of 45k was very useful as I was not sure what can I expect. Thanks again for posting this.
@Zahid,
Since last 2 weeks to go, it will be good if you write few things soon. We need a series of posts now.