International Customers

International customers, will indeed, find purchasing from us a bit more complicated than domestic Indian customers for obvious reasons. We summarize the issues for your knowledge one by one.

1. International Shipping

Gold and silver jewelry fall under dutiable items in most countries, making international shipping much more complicated (customs valuation, customs clearance at both source and destination, approved courier etc) than say buying a saree or furniture. Legal international shipping  through the red-channel can be very expensive for a small purchase.

For international shipping directly from India, the following are applicable

• US$ 60 per package limited to a maximum total of US $5000 or total weight 350gms. For totals above $5000 to $50,000, the shipping charges are $250-$300. Certain locations in the world may demand higher shipping which shall be communicated to the customer and any excess dues collected. The fee includes freight as well as insurance. The carriers are generally FEDEX, DHL or Aramex.
• 8-12 days shipping time given goods are ready to ship. The goods will travel from Amritsar to Jaipur/Delhi for customs clearance and then onto destination. Please be informed that delays upto 10-20 days have been observed occasionally in the recent past due to Covid19 and general shipping chokes.

2. International Duties & Taxes

Gold and silver jewelry fall under dutiable items in most countries. Import duty and relevant central and/or state taxes have to be paid by the "importer" or the customer in this case. But there is more to it, that a layman may not know.

When someone in India, example ourselves, buys gold/silver to make jewelry, they pay the relevant import duty and taxes to the government of India. Essentially, the 24k gold/silver rate is always quoted locally as inclusive of import duty tax.

Now when that jewelry is sold or "exported" to a country with which India has a tax treaty, technically speaking, we can seek duty and tax reimbursement from the Indian govt. The whole idea of tax treaties between friendly nations is to protect citizens from getting taxed twice!. We can hence afford to quote a lower gold price to the customer - thereby passing on the benefit to the international buyer who can then compensate the duty & tax paid in their country with this "discounted rate". The total of duty+GST in India is 15% or so, thus this can be a significant savings for an international buyer.

However, in practice, it is not viable to seek reimbursement for small shipments of gold and silver jewelry, at least as of now given the paperwork involved. Silver is ruled out but for gold products, we can take each case on its merits.

To summarise, the customer shall be responsible to pay any applicable duties or sales tax in their respective country - we will try our best to effectively nullify that duty/tax payment by providing relief in the form of lower rate from our side, if the case commands merit.

3. International Payments

One of the biggest hurdles in International payments online are the payment gateways and networks which charge a whopping transaction and currency conversion fee. While cost effective networks like Zelle, Wise, Western Union etc do exist, please be informed that they are meant for friends and family only and NOT commercial transactions. We will not accept payments through any such routes. 

Monopolies like Paypal who are authorized to be used for commercial transactions, charge a whopping 5.5% transaction fee AND cut another 5% or so in currency exchange rate - all to be borne by the seller.

We welcome payments though SWIFT or WIRE directly into our bank account for direct exports. 

We accept international credit cards and American Express as well.

To summarize:

The most economical way for someone buying from outside India is to pay from an Indian source AND take delivery within India.

 

Also ...

We have a tie up in place with a Pennsylvania, USA based enterprise: Deccan Pearls & Jewelry. We jointly manage this website to serve to the North American market. You can also physically checkout a large collection of our gold plated jewelry in Levittown, Pennsylvania by appointment.

We have made available a large & frequently updated ready to ship stock with them and have made efforts to ensure that despite the import duties and other expenses incurred by us, the final price (including free shipping within the USA), is, though marginally higher but is still fairly comparable to the net price if purchased online from us in India.

The objective is to provide a local-like online shopping experience for the international shoppers; given the general hesitancy with international purchases, uncertain covid19 times, risky & erratic international shipping and ever rising third party charges like payments and currency conversions.

We welcome shoppers from across the world to try ready or customised jewellery through our associate platform without hesitation. Customers in North America shall be entitled to avail services like returns (subject to returns policy), repairs etc if required like a domestic purchase experience.