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Spare Parts By Post / Duty Reduction ?


Sifaan

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Hi!

Does anyone have any experience of getting spare parts by post (e.g. from UK)?

Need to get some stuff down and considering post/courier.

According to http://www.customs.gov.lk/crdtc2/HSCODES_list.asp (HS Code 87.08.XX), taxes/duty would amount to 40%+

(not sure if this has been updated, since it still shows VAT at 15%.. shouldn't it be 12% except for stuff in the 20% bracket?)

anyway I might be able to claim the VAT.

What I want to know

1. Has anybody any experience bringing down parts by post (air/sea) / courier? Did you get caught for taxes?

2. Was there any change in taxes for spare parts with the duty reduction? More precisely, any idea if the rates in the online calculator are correct?

Thanks

/Sifaan

PS also looking for someone who can hand carry 2-3 kg. if you know of someone travelling from UK who can hand carry some stuff (for a fee) please send me a PM :rolleyes:

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I have got some stuff. But have no idea what percentage ...etc. I guess it ends up almost around 40% or so, of the item value. And if it's an used item, it's a bit lesser I guess. And not sure whether the recent tax reduction made any impact on this. Anyway what are you planing to get?

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I have got some stuff. But have no idea what percentage ...etc. I guess it ends up almost around 40% or so, of the item value. And if it's an used item, it's a bit lesser I guess. And not sure whether the recent tax reduction made any impact on this. Anyway what are you planing to get?

I was hoping it might have passed by customs unnoticed :(

I need quite an assortment of stuff; a friend will be able to hand-carry some of it so it's for whatever that's left that I may have to resort to post (if I can't find someone else who can help)... probably some of the lower priority stuff like some LED lights, a tyre pressure gauge, small trim items may end up by post (since I can live without them for a while). Hoping the important stuff (like the water pump) will fit in my friend's luggage.

but for sure a power steering pump would arrive by post because (of all places) I got it off a seller in Israel!

btw I checked Darshan Enterprises and they quoted me 27500 for the part that I get in UK for 50 pounds (about 9000 rupees)

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I was hoping it might have passed by customs unnoticed :(

I need quite an assortment of stuff; a friend will be able to hand-carry some of it so it's for whatever that's left that I may have to resort to post (if I can't find someone else who can help)... probably some of the lower priority stuff like some LED lights, a tyre pressure gauge, small trim items may end up by post (since I can live without them for a while). Hoping the important stuff (like the water pump) will fit in my friend's luggage.

but for sure a power steering pump would arrive by post because (of all places) I got it off a seller in Israel!

btw I checked Darshan Enterprises and they quoted me 27500 for the part that I get in UK for 50 pounds (about 9000 rupees)

Sifaan,

To Air lift 1/2 Kg I paid US$ 59.7 To UPS three days back.

Wijesinghe

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Sifaan,

To Air lift 1/2 Kg I paid US$ 59.7 To UPS three days back.

Wijesinghe

Hi!

I'm not worried about the post/courier costs (that information is easily available on the internet)

What I need to know is what happens with customs... e.g. if it's just 2-3 parts in a box, would they still charge duty, etc.?

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Hi!

I'm not worried about the post/courier costs (that information is easily available on the internet)

What I need to know is what happens with customs... e.g. if it's just 2-3 parts in a box, would they still charge duty, etc.?

Sifaan,

If you hand carry any thing the items is for personal use you can declare some good Customs officer will believe you and will not levy duty it all depends on the person who carry's same as it is coming from UK if you get any one to carry not much of suspicion at the Air port. There are regular carriers the are friendly with officers can get a low duty rate.

I have helped to carry others parcels when I was a regular visitor to US and Japan I always did not have my full baggage allowance so they used to put them on my extra left allowable their extra baggage I did that only for known Srilankans. Whom I know they will not carry contraband stuff.

I suggest to get through EMS air parcel post normal way not express then the parcel will be at Colombo post office almost close to Lake House they will send you a notification then go their you can do the need full to declare that is for your personal use but export party will declare the actual cost if a friend can export same as declaring low cost you will be able to get a low duty.

I get my parcels from reputed exporters they will never declare low amounts as it is against their Business etiquette. I pay correct duty through the Currier service and it is delivered to doorstep of mine.

Wijesinghe.

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Hi!

I'm not worried about the post/courier costs (that information is easily available on the internet)

What I need to know is what happens with customs... e.g. if it's just 2-3 parts in a box, would they still charge duty, etc.?

Yes, and yes it is close to 40%. I have gotten down car stuff from eBay. Sometimes, you can get hold of somebody at the parcel office & try to get the duty reduced.

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if a friend can export same as declaring low cost you will be able to get a low duty.

That seems like the way to go; anyway I'm not getting stuff sent direct to Sri Lanka (except for 1 part from Israel)... a friend in UK can put them together in a box and send to save on the postage (plus a lot of sellers will not send direct to Sri Lanka anyway).

And thanks Az for the confirmation on the duty.

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Just an update.. my power steering pump arrived from Israel. I paid more for the postage (35$) than for the pump! Arrived in 4 days (quite fast!)

Went to the EMS section at the postal building on D.R. Wijewardena Mawatha; less crowd for EMS parcels than regular mail that gets detained (that's upstairs) but still had to wait about an hour (anybody trying this - go first thing in the morning!)

taxes due was 5% PAL, 15% Duty, 1.5% SRL, 12% VAT and 3% NBT of the declared value (2000)

Not quite sure how the calculation was done though, cos PAL was 100 (5% of 2000), Duty was 300 (15% of 2000), SRL was 5 (this is 1.5% of taxes, so I guess it is 300*1.5% = 4.5, rounded up to 5), VAT was 312 and NBT was 78. VAT amount is 12% of 2600 and NBT amount is 3% of 2600, which doesn't figure (I am not sure which amounts are compounded, but worst case should've been VAT on (2000+100+300+5)).

Anyway, taxes and duties work out to ~40% of value.

And for anyone who might do this in future; if you're importing a new part, try to get a bit of oil or grease on it before packing so you can declare it as used ;)

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Sifaan,

To Air lift 1/2 Kg I paid US$ 59.7 To UPS three days back.

Wijesinghe

Your post is misleading. Charges of UPS and USPS vary to SL depending on things other than weight, including type of item and duty band they fall in to, and speed of posting. $60 for 500 grams is very very expensive unless you were having it shipped overnight. I've sent 20KG boxes from USA to SL for 120 dollars via normal USPS that takes about 10 days.

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Your post is misleading. Charges of UPS and USPS vary to SL depending on things other than weight, including type of item and duty band they fall in to, and speed of posting.

err... Why is that? apart from speed of service, the only thing I've noticed is the volumetric weight/actual weight distinction (i.e. if you have a big, light package it's charged by converting volume to an "equivalent" weight). Of course if it needed special handling (fragile stuff, hazardous stuff, liquids that can leak, etc) I can understand an extra fee, but why does shipping company care about the duty band?

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And for anyone who might do this in future; if you're importing a new part, try to get a bit of oil or grease on it before packing so you can declare it as used ;)

hell yeah...i once got a used fishing reel off ebay. the damn thing was so dirty when it arrived here the customs dude didn't even wanna check it properly...

gave it away with zero taxes i think :)

so dirtier the better! :)

and the other way is that if you get hold of an insider bugger there...you can sort things out much faster at lesser taxes...

i've done it a few times

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err... Why is that? apart from speed of service, the only thing I've noticed is the volumetric weight/actual weight distinction (i.e. if you have a big, light package it's charged by converting volume to an "equivalent" weight). Of course if it needed special handling (fragile stuff, hazardous stuff, liquids that can leak, etc) I can understand an extra fee, but why does shipping company care about the duty band?

Because the customs clearance charge/broker fees of UPS depends on what sort of duty the goods are subject to...at least this was the case when I shipped a couple of guitars for people here from USA via UPS and FedEx. They told me that regardless of whether it is a "gift" or not, and so long as the value is over $40 (because it obviously was), and at the time the duty for that kind of thing in Sri Lanka was 120%, I had to pay a parallel brokerage fee to both carriers. It wasn't a large fee, but it wasn't free either. This is aside from the customs duty my friends had to deal with here (which was waived after some wrangling). Maybe this is not the case anymore/ymmv. I was told normal postal service from USA has a flat rate fee, but their lack of parcel tracking at the time didn't work for me.

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Because the customs clearance charge/broker fees of UPS depends on what sort of duty the goods are subject to...at least this was the case when I shipped a couple of guitars for people here from USA via UPS and FedEx. They told me that regardless of whether it is a "gift" or not, and so long as the value is over $40 (because it obviously was), and at the time the duty for that kind of thing in Sri Lanka was 120%, I had to pay a parallel brokerage fee to both carriers. It wasn't a large fee, but it wasn't free either. This is aside from the customs duty my friends had to deal with here (which was waived after some wrangling). Maybe this is not the case anymore/ymmv. I was told normal postal service from USA has a flat rate fee, but their lack of parcel tracking at the time didn't work for me.

ah, ok, so that was their handling fee for the rasthiyadu I had to undergo this morning... :D

had something similar when fedexing some laptops (but we paid the courier fee seperate from the handling fee... handling was charged together with duty after package arrived)

I'm actually quite impressed by EMS (4 days from Israel to Colombo, and that too spanning a weekend); they have a tracking number, checked it just now and it says that as of 15th August it's detained by customs in Sri Lanka. Dunno if it will update that I collected it :)

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