When Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed a reduction in tariffs on goods imported for personal use, during her India Budget 2026 speech on February 1, welcome vibes were felt by NRIs around the world.

She said, “To rationalise the customs duty structure for goods imported for personal use, I propose to reduce the tariff rate on all dutiable goods imported for personal use from 20% to 10%.”

In line with that, India has introduced new baggage rules that allow international travellers to bring more gold jewellery (by weight) to the country.

Female passengers can bring in up to 40 grams of gold jewellery without any customs charges. Other passengers are permitted to bring up to 20 grams.

“The special allowances for jewellery are designed to ease the return of personal belongings for residents and tourists of Indian origin,” a Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) official said.

The new rules apply to Indian residents or persons of Indian origin who have lived abroad for over a year. Previous rules capped jewellery allowance based on value rather than weight. The jewellery must be part of ‘bona fide personal baggage’, which means it should not be for sale, CBIC stated.

The new rules also increase duty-free allowances for other categories of passengers arriving in India by air or sea. Indian residents and tourists of Indian origin can bring products worth Rs. 75,000 under the new allowance limit. The previous limit was Rs. 50,000.

Foreign tourists can bring items worth up to Rs. 25,000, without customs charges. The earlier limit was Rs. 15,000.

Travellers crossing land borders are not entitled to any duty-free allowances. – Image by freepik – editor@nrifocus.com