Airport sees rise in smuggling of iPhone 7s

Customs officials have seized 120 iPhone 7 handsets that were brought without declaration and duty payment in the past 20 days. The smartphone is yet to be launched in the country.

According to the customs sources, in most of the cases, the iPhones were being brought to the city from Hong Kong, where the product was launched recently, in bulk.

The sources also revealed that many passengers have been travelling to Hong Kong to purchase a large number of iPhones from there just to sell them in the grey market, as sellers are making a killing from them.

In the recent case, the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) intercepted a passenger, Jenish Dilip Kumar Shah, who had arrived from Hong Kong in a Cathay Pacific flight. The officials recovered two iPhone 7 and ten iPhone 7 Plus phones from Shah. According to the price tags of these phones, they are worth Rs 7,66,704 in total.

Commenting on the case, a top official from AIU said that Mumbai and Delhi airports are witnessing a large number of such cases. After intercepting these passengers, customs officials divert them for ITC action, which involves collecting a fine and taking duty from them. According to the official, on Sunday Delhi airport officials recovered 49 iPhone 7 and 28 iPhone 7 Plus smartphones worth Rs 46,39,000 totally. These iPhones were brought in from Hong Kong.

One needs to pay duty for items that have a market rate of more than Rs 50,000. For iPhones, one needs to pay 35 per cent of their rate as customs duty and if a passenger brings them in without declaring duty, he or she has to pay 15 to 17 per cent of its rate as penalty along with duty.

The iPhone 7 is scheduled to be launched in October 7 while it was launched on September 5 abroad. The iPhone 7 starts at Rs 60,000, while the base iPhone 7 Plus model is priced at Rs 72,000.

Sources informed this newspaper that in the grey market these phones are sold for Rs 75,000 to Rs 1,00,000.