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UAE-based association asks for clarity on India's gold carrying rules
According to current rules, women can carry up to 40g of gold jewellery worth Rs100,000 (approx. Dh4,200) and men can carry up to 20g of gold, subject to a value cap of Rs50,000 (Dh2,100)
- PUBLISHED: Thu 11 Sept 2025, 9:08 AM UPDATED: Tue 16 Sept 2025, 10:19 PM
A UAE-based organisation has lodged a formal request to the Indian government to clarify gold carrying rules for expats in the country. The Indian Association of Sharjah sent a memorandum to the country’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday asking to remove the ambiguities in the customs baggage declaration regulations to keep in line with current gold prices.
“This is a huge issue that Indian expats face when traveling to their home country at airports,” said Nizar Thalangara, the president of the organisation.
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The organisation’s vice president Pratheep Nemmara explained how he was “harassed” for more than an hour at an Indian airport for carrying two gold bangles weighing 30g on his last visit to the country.
“I was asked whether I was carrying any gold, and I declared what I had,” he said. “The officers asked me to pay them ‘something’ or pay 35 per cent tax on the gold. I insisted that I only wanted to go the legal route and had to pay Rs107,000 (approx. Dh4,400) as tax on the gold I was carrying.”
“The law regulating how much gold an expat can carry home was designed almost a decade ago and doesn’t reflect the current realities. At a time when gold prices have climbed to record highs, many expat travellers are having to pay huge amounts as duty for small amounts of gold because of this old valuation.”
The receipt seen by Khaleej Times indicates that the tax was calculated on the value of the gold as opposed to the amount of gold.
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According to current rules, women can carry up to 40g of gold jewellery worth Rs100,000 (approx. Dh4,200) and men can carry up to 20g of gold, subject to a value cap of Rs50,000 (Dh2,100) when travelling to India from abroad.
Treated like a thief
Pratheep said that this was the first time that he had such an an experience in over 25 years of travelling. “The custom officers said that my passport showed that I had travelled between India and UAE too many times, implying that they suspected I was involved in gold smuggling,” he said.
“They treated me like a thief. Both my daughters are studying in India and every chance I get; I travel back to see them. This time, I traveled from Abu Dhabi to Kochi and returned Kochi to RAK to save on ticket prices.”
He said he tried reasoning with the officers and asked them to keep the gold at the airport so that he could collect them on his way back to the UAE, but they refused adamantly.
“There is a provision for travellers to leave restricted goods at the airport and collect it on the way back,” he said. “However, they refused to give me that concession because they said I didn’t declare the gold beforehand. The gold was in my handbag, and they had not checked it. If I had not declared it, there would have been no way for them to know that I had jewellery. They threatened to detain me if I did not pay the fine.”
Outdated prices
When the notification of gold-carrying rules was issued in 2016, the price of 22K gold was around Rs2,500 (Dh104), the memorandum said. However, gold prices have more than tripled now and stand at over Dh400. This means that 40g of gold is now worth over Dh16,000 and 20g of 22K gold is valued at over Dh8,000.
“This discrepancy creates confusion for passengers as well as difficulties for the authorities in implementation,” it said.
“The mismatch between the stipulated value and the present market reality often leads to unnecessary disputes at customs checkpoints, inconvenience for genuine travellers and regrettably, it also opens the door for corrupt practices.”
“Such situations not only cause distress to expat Indians but also place an avoidable burden on customs officials in carrying out their duties,” said Nizar. “So, the memo requests the value cap in the notification be deleted and for passengers to be allowed a specified weight of gold ornaments.”
