Indian customs law, cited at the source.
The customs of India, from the tariff to the tribunal — read at the date of the bill of entry. Classification, valuation, origin, the duty stack — statutory and effective — the export side and the defence: the trade’s method rides inside the connector, and the citation comes back with the answer.
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Who Chanakya Customs is for
For practitioners whose position has to hold at the line and at the date — from the purchase order to the tribunal bundle. Each one puts the question in their own words; the answer comes back sourced.
At the border desk
Customs brokers and forwarders. Classification, valuation and origin settled before the bill of entry is keyed — and its checks sourced, item by item. “Which tariff line for a modular LED assembly with integrated driver?”
Importers and exporters. The landed cost read before the purchase order: the line, the stack — statutory and effective — the licences and the flags that attach to it. “What must be in place before we import this radio equipment?”
In the file, and before the tribunal
Customs counsel. The substance of the law, and the pieces with it: seizure, show-cause notice, appeal, penalty — each answered point by point, inside its own clock. “The notice invokes section 28(4) — answer the extended-period allegation point by point.”
Compliance and trade teams. Trade remedies by line and origin, import policy, SCOMET awareness — and the double rate kept straight, entry by entry. “The schedule says 20 % — is that what we will actually pay?”
What the corpus covers
The tariff, the Acts, the notifications and the tribunal — each read as it stood at the date of the bill of entry. The First Schedule and the effective notification keep a line apiece, never merged into one; and where a known instrument’s text is not yet distributed, the record says the instrument exists rather than staying silent.
- Customs Tariff of India 147,903 tariff keys — eight-digit lines and their yearly vintages
- The double rate First Schedule beside notification No. 50/2017, entry-matched, each dated
- Customs Act 1962, Tariff Act 1975 5,836 sections and rules, read point-in-time; FTDR beside them
- Notifications & circulars 8,540 with their life-chain — amended and superseded say so
- 19 trade agreements 71,885 preferential entries, interval-matched, notification named
- Remedies & per-line flags 1,848 ADD/CVD/safeguard measures; policy and GST on 10,952 lines
- Judgments, full text 32,676 — Supreme Court, High Courts and CESTAT; 464 advance rulings
- The export side 344,663 partner-tariff couples; drawback on 8,100 lines; FX, dated
What you hand it
Six pieces of work, taken end to end — and under each of them the same record: the tariff line, the section, the notification, the judgment, held with its date. The facts are qualified, the text applicable at the date of the entry is retrieved, circulars are weighed as circulars, then the answer concludes.
Classify, by the rules
The descent runs through the General Rules of Interpretation, with the section and chapter notes read first — and rival headings weighed against one another before one is retained. A classification once reasoned holds across sessions unless the text itself changes.
Value the goods
Section 14 and the 2007 Valuation Rules in their order: transaction value first, the additions made explicit, related parties tested — and where the price is set inside the group, the bridge to transfer pricing is stated rather than assumed.
Establish origin
Preference under the 19 agreements with the proof each one demands — and CAROTAR’s diligence beside the certificate: the importer’s own duty to possess the origin information, stated, not assumed away.
Compute the duty stack
BCD at the effective rate, AIDC, SWS, IGST and cess — each layer on its own base, each carrying its instrument. Where a rate is conditional, the condition is stated; where a remedy bites, it surfaces on the line itself.
Serve the export side
The DGFT policy conditions and SCOMET awareness on the way out — and the partner side: what tariff Indian goods face abroad, preference by preference, across 344,663 couples; drawback read at the line.
Defend the file
Seizure and the six-month clock of section 110(2), provisional release under 110A, the show-cause notice under 124 and section 28’s periods, appeals to the Commissioner (Appeals) and CESTAT — every deadline computed as a calendar date.
Defending starts with reading everything
A seizure memo, a show-cause notice or a demand is not answered with citations alone. The file is read whole, each allegation is qualified, and the reply goes out inside the clock that governs it — because in customs the clocks are statutory, and some of them do not reopen.
The whole file, read
Seizure memo, panchnama, show-cause notice, the bill of entry and the papers behind it — hundreds of pages absorbed, and the facts that decide the outcome drawn out of them.
A customs practitioner’s reasoning
The facts qualified, the text read as it stood at the date of the entry, departmental circulars weighed as what they are — binding the administration, never the courts — and the tribunal’s judgments, in full text, brought to bear on the point actually in issue.
Arguments, and pieces
Reply to the show-cause notice, provisional-release request, grounds of appeal, stay application — drafted, argued and computed. Each piece leaves as a draft; the signature stays with the professional.
8517 13 00
Customs Act 1962, s. 110(2)
No. 50/2017-Customs
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Questions, as they arrive
Four matters, put the way they are put in practice. The answer comes back with its citations — the tariff line, the section, the notification with its number and date.
A broker, on a part that fits two headings. “Which tariff line for a modular LED assembly with integrated driver?”
A trader, on the double rate. “The First Schedule says 20 % on smartphones — is that what we will actually pay?”
Counsel, three weeks after a seizure. “DRI seized my client’s consignment three weeks ago — what clocks are running?”
An importer, on a trade remedy. “Anti-dumping on Chinese aluminium foil — does it still bite, and at what rate?”
Three steps, no more
A few minutes: the connector goes in, the question goes out dated, and the citation comes back to be checked at the official source.
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Connect
One click from the connect page, or the address pasted by hand — Claude on the web, on the desktop and on mobile; ChatGPT through the same address. The connector is open: no account is needed today.
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Ask, dated
Put the question and give the date of the bill of entry. The version served is the one that date commands — and the answer states which version it read.
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Verify the citation
The answer cites the tariff line, the section, the notification with its number and date, the judgment — verifiable line by line at the official source.
They appear in your tool list once the connector is confirmed. The full walk-through: step-by-step setup.
Four questions, before you connect
Where do the texts come from?
From the official record: the Customs Tariff of India and the CBIC’s published notifications, circulars and instructions; India Code and the Gazette for the Acts and rules; the DGFT’s policy schedules; the courts’ and tribunals’ own published records for the judgments, held in full text. Every answer returns the exact citation — number, date, section — for checking at the source.
How is the double rate handled?
As two records, not one. The First Schedule states the statutory rate; the rate actually paid usually lives in an exemption notification — No. 50/2017-Customs above all — entry-matched to the line, sometimes under conditions. The answer serves both rates, names the notification with its date, and states the condition where one attaches. Blending them is the classic error a landed cost dies of.
How do I connect?
From the connect page: one click, or the connector’s address pasted into Claude (web, desktop or mobile) or into ChatGPT. The connector is open — no account is needed today. The detailed walk-through is on the setup page.
Is this legal advice?
No: a documentary research aid, sourced to the tariff line and to the section. The professional checks the citation, weighs the situation and decides. The full frame is in the terms.
Put it on a real entry
Open the counsel’s ledger on a file you already know — the tariff line, the duty stack, the deadline. The first answer comes back with its citations.
Open connector · no account needed today · works in Claude and ChatGPT.