As the illegal Gold imports have raised to a huge margin in the year 2013, the Custom Authorities have tightened the regulations now and here after all passengers coming to India will now have to fill in a new detailed customs form on their arrival and this regulation will come in effective from tomorrow i.e, January 1st.

Also Indian citizens will have to fill up immigration form only when they go out and there will not be any immigration form for Indians returning from abroad. The passengers have to provide details of countries visited over the past one week and mention their passport numbers in the new form, which was not there earlier.

In addition to this, for the first time, travelers would be asked to specifically declare any prohibited articles, gold jewellery (over free allowance), gold bullion and Indian currency exceeding Rs. 7,500 in the new form and also passengers have to give details of baggage being carried by them in a separate column instead of pieces of hand baggage and checked in baggage separately.

As we have seen quite a few employees involving in illegal smuggling, airport authorities should really strive to implement these norms without failure.

(AW: Vamshi Tunga)