By S&S Co. Advocates & Solicitors · Published 21 October 2026 · Informational content, not legal advice: see our disclaimer
Every NRI client who calls us before a permanent move back to India asks some version of the same question: how much can I actually bring in without paying customs duty on it. The honest answer used to require wading through a long appendix to the Baggage Rules, 2016, item by item. The Baggage Rules, 2026, notified on 1 February 2026 and in force from 2 February 2026, replaced that appendix with three flat value slabs tied to how long you lived abroad. That is a real simplification, but it also changes a few numbers people assume have stayed the same for years, and it leaves vehicles entirely outside the scheme, which is where most of the expensive mistakes happen.
This guide works through who qualifies for the transfer of residence concession, what the three slabs cover, where jewellery and laptops sit outside those slabs, and why a car needs a completely separate approach. None of this is a substitute for checking the current notification before you ship a container, since customs practice at the port of entry can be stricter than the text of the rule.
Who actually counts as transferring residence
The concession in the Baggage Rules is not available to anyone who simply flies in with a lot of luggage. It is reserved for a resident or a tourist of Indian origin who is either engaged in a profession abroad or is transferring residence to India, over and above the ordinary duty-free allowance every arriving passenger gets. In practice this covers Indian passport holders coming back to settle for good, OCI cardholders relocating to India for an extended stay, and persons of Indian origin who gave up Indian citizenship and are now moving back. A tourist on a short visit, however long the trip, does not fall within this category regardless of how long they have lived abroad on other occasions.
Customs officers at the airport or port decide this question on the papers in front of them: your passport history, your visa or residence status abroad, and the declaration you file. Carrying proof of your employment or residence abroad, and of the date you are relocating, saves a great deal of argument at the red channel. Where the claim is disputed, the remedy is representation to the jurisdictional Commissioner rather than an argument at the counter, so it pays to have the paperwork ready before you land rather than after.
The three value slabs for household goods
The 2026 rules replaced the old item-by-item appendix with a single rationalised list of duty-free articles and an overall value cap that depends on how long you were abroad. The reported tiers are a cap of Rs 1.5 lakh for a stay abroad of up to twelve months, Rs 3 lakh for a stay of one to two years, and Rs 7.5 lakh for anyone who stayed abroad for more than two years. These are the figures practitioners and tax commentators are currently working with, and they represent a clear increase on what the 2016 regime allowed for comparable periods abroad.
What is not yet settled in public commentary is the precise minimum continuous stay abroad needed to unlock even the lowest slab, and how short trips back to India during that period are counted against it. Different summaries of the rule describe this differently, so until the government's own FAQ or a clarificatory circular nails down the exact day count, the safer course for a client close to a cut-off is to treat the longer, more conservative period as the one to plan around, and to keep a clean travel history to show the officer exactly how much time was actually spent outside India.
The slab is a value cap on the goods you bring, not a cash allowance. Anything above the applicable limit attracts duty at the standard rate applicable to baggage, which the 2026 rules are also reported to have eased, so overshooting the slab by a reasonable margin is not the disaster it once was, but it is still a cost worth pricing in before you ship anything bulky.
Jewellery runs on its own, separate allowance
A returning NRI often assumes the household goods slab covers jewellery as well. It does not. Jewellery has always sat under its own provision, and the 2026 rules changed how it is measured rather than folding it into the general slab. A resident or Indian-origin tourist who has lived abroad for more than a year can now bring jewellery duty free purely on a weight basis: up to 40 grams for a woman and 20 grams for any other passenger, carried in bona fide baggage. The older value caps attached to this allowance have been dropped, so a family heirloom that would once have been taxed for exceeding a rupee ceiling can now pass duty free as long as it stays within the weight limit.
This weight-based allowance exists in addition to, not instead of, the household goods slab discussed above. The two should never be confused when you are totalling up what you are bringing in, because declaring jewellery against the wrong head is one of the more common ways an otherwise straightforward arrival turns into a detention and a show-cause notice.
What a laptop and ordinary personal effects get regardless of the slab
Separately from both of the above, a passenger aged eighteen or older, other than a crew member, is allowed to bring in one new laptop or notepad computer duty free in bona fide baggage. This is a standing allowance under the rules and does not depend on transfer of residence status at all, so even a short-term visitor gets it once, though a second laptop or any high-value electronics beyond that will usually be charged against the general duty-free allowance rather than the ToR slab.
Ordinary personal effects, meaning used articles you reasonably need for the journey and for daily living, are treated separately from the ToR household goods concession and are not counted against it, provided they are not on the restricted list in Annexure-I to the rules and are not imported for sale or any commercial purpose. A used phone, a worn set of clothes, or a personal camera fall comfortably within this category. What does not is a stack of brand-new electronics bought just before the flight purely to furnish a new home, since customs will treat that as a commercial import dressed up as baggage, and the declaration itself can trigger closer scrutiny of everything else you are carrying.
Why your car does not travel under these rules at all
This is the point where clients most often go wrong, because the household goods slab feels generous enough to assume a car fits inside it. It does not. Importing a personal vehicle on transfer of residence is governed by a separate regime built around the Foreign Trade Policy administered by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, together with the Customs Tariff Act, not by the Baggage Rules at all. The vehicle route has its own licensing step, its own age and specification conditions for the car itself, and its own restrictions on how soon after the move it must be imported and on how long before the next import of this kind is allowed.
Commentary on the exact numbers here is not consistent. Different guides describe different minimum stay-abroad periods, different cooling-off periods before another vehicle import is permitted, and different technical specification requirements for the car. Rather than repeat a figure that may not hold by the time a client actually ships the vehicle, the practical advice is to treat car import as its own separate project requiring a DGFT import authorisation and a customs broker experienced in vehicle clearance, started well before the move, and never to assume it rides along with the household shipment on the strength of the ToR slab alone.
The general allowance underneath everything else
Beneath all of the transfer-of-residence provisions sits the ordinary duty-free allowance every arriving passenger is entitled to. The 2026 rules raised this for a resident or an Indian-origin tourist arriving other than by land from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000, with different and generally lower figures for foreign tourists and for crew members, and no general allowance at all for anyone arriving by a land border crossing. This base allowance is what you fall back on for ordinary purchases that do not qualify as household goods, jewellery, or the laptop concession, and it stacks with the ToR slab rather than being absorbed into it.
Families planning a move often find it worth sitting down with a checklist well before the flight: which goods go against the household slab, which single item goes against the laptop allowance, which jewellery goes against the weight-based allowance, and what residual purchases will simply be absorbed into the general Rs 75,000 figure. Getting that allocation wrong at the counter, under time pressure with a flight's worth of luggage on a trolley, is a far worse place to work it out for the first time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a short trip home during my years abroad reset my transfer-of-residence eligibility?
The rules do look at your continuous stay abroad, and short visits to India are generally expected to count against that period rather than being ignored. Public commentary on the exact tolerance is not uniform, so if your travel history includes several trips home, it is safer to document the dates carefully and discuss the position with customs or a broker before you rely on a particular slab.
Can I bring my car into India duty free as part of my move?
No. Vehicles are not covered by the Baggage Rules' transfer-of-residence slabs at all. A personal car is imported under a separate Foreign Trade Policy and Customs Tariff Act regime with its own licensing, age and specification conditions, which needs to be arranged as a distinct process well before the shipment.
What happens if the goods I bring are worth more than my applicable slab?
The excess over your slab is not refused entry, it simply attracts customs duty at the standard rate applicable to baggage, which the 2026 rules have also eased compared to the earlier regime. It is worth getting a realistic valuation of your goods before shipping so the likely duty bill is not a surprise at clearance.
Is the jewellery allowance part of my household goods slab or separate from it?
It is entirely separate. The jewellery allowance of 40 grams for a woman and 20 grams for any other passenger, available after a year or more abroad, sits outside the Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 7.5 lakh household goods slabs and should be declared and totalled against its own head.
Do OCI cardholders get the same transfer-of-residence benefit as Indian passport holders?
Yes, the concession is framed around being a resident or tourist of Indian origin relocating to India, which covers OCI cardholders moving back for an extended stay, not around the colour of the passport alone. The same documentation discipline on proof of residence abroad and the move applies equally.
References & Further Reading
The provisions and rulings below were relied on for this guide. The position can change with amendments and later decisions, so check the current text and the latest case law before acting on any of it.
- Baggage Rules, 2026, Notification No. 14/2026-Customs (N.T.) dated 1 February 2026, in supersession of the Baggage Rules, 2016, effective 2 February 2026
- Baggage Rules, 2026 - jewellery allowance provision (40 grams for a female passenger, 20 grams for any other passenger, weight basis, no value cap, after more than one year's residence abroad)
- Baggage Rules, 2026 - transfer of residence value tiers (up to 12 months abroad: Rs 1.5 lakh; 1-2 years: Rs 3 lakh; over 2 years: Rs 7.5 lakh) and general duty-free allowance raised to Rs 75,000 for residents and Indian-origin tourists
- Baggage Rules, 2026 - one new laptop or notepad computer duty-free allowance for a passenger aged 18 or above
- Foreign Trade Policy (DGFT) and Customs Tariff Act, 1962 framework governing import of a personal vehicle on transfer of residence, as a regime distinct from the Baggage Rules