Customs duties are payable on every piece of furniture imported into India from China or elsewhere in the world.  The Indian Customs Act of 1962 stipulates how much duty is payable on imported furniture.  

A common man  thinks of sofa, dining table, curtains, lights, tableware, floor tiles, lights and decorative products as furniture. Unfortunately, there is no general provision in the Indian Customs Act to classify all household goods as furniture.  The Customs Act defines each item as per “International Trade Classification - Harmonized Code” (ITC-HS) and assigns the rate of duty payable for it.  They are logically arranged as Chapters drilled down to specific sub-headings within those chapters.  Here is a list of common furniture and their broad chapter headings.

Loading container is often considered less important part of the shipment process.  While many tend to think of it as some laborer putting things in a container as per packing list that does not warrant enough attention.  We tend to differ!  At CIS, we think that loading a furniture container is a very important job.  In fact, this represents the last moment when the container will leave the shippers warehouse towards buyer’s destination.  A container unloaded properly can cause many potential problems:

• Unbalance load may damage the container
• Heavier packages on top of the light one may damage products
• Improper loading and exposure to elements of the nature may weaken or destroy outer package