The bright vaulted interior of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport terminal in Mumbai with travellers and baggage trolleys

Practical

Indian customs when you fly home: what the 2026 baggage rules changed

By Live Traveller8 min readPublished September 7, 2026

India replaced its baggage rules in February 2026. The duty-free allowance rose to ₹75,000, jewellery moved to a weight basis, and one new laptop now comes in free. Here is what applies when you land.

What changed in February 2026

India notified a new set of Baggage Rules on 1 February 2026, in force from the following day. They replaced the previous rules outright, which means most of the guidance circulating online — including figures that were correct for years — now describes a system that no longer exists.

Three changes matter to an ordinary returning traveller. The general duty-free allowance went up. The jewellery allowance stopped being a rupee value and became a weight. And a new laptop was made explicitly duty-free for adult passengers.

The general free allowance

For Indian residents and tourists of Indian origin arriving by air or sea, articles up to a value of ₹75,000 come in free of duty, excluding the items listed in the rules' own Annexure I. For foreign tourists of non-Indian origin, the equivalent figure is ₹25,000.

Two conditions are easy to miss. The allowance is personal and cannot be pooled — a family of four does not get a single combined limit to spend on one television. And it applies to arrival by air or sea; arriving overland, the concession is limited to used personal effects for daily necessities.

Used personal effects — the clothes, toiletries and belongings you left India with — are cleared free of duty in any case, and that applies to every arriving passenger including an infant. The allowance is about what you are bringing in addition.

Jewellery is now measured by weight

This is the most substantive change. The old value caps were removed and replaced with a straightforward weight test: a female passenger may bring jewellery up to 40 grams duty-free, and a passenger other than a female up to 20 grams.

The eligibility condition is strict, and it is where people come unstuck. This concession applies to returning residents and tourists of Indian origin who have been staying abroad for more than one year. It is not a holiday allowance. Someone coming back from a fortnight in Dubai does not qualify for it, whatever the weight.

Jewellery you took out of India with you is a different matter again — it is your personal effect, not an import. If you are travelling with valuables you intend to bring home, the sensible precaution is to be able to show they left with you.

Alcohol, tobacco and the new laptop rule

The duty-free concession does not extend to alcoholic liquor in excess of two litres, to more than 100 cigarettes, to more than 25 cigars, or to more than 125 grams of tobacco. Quantities beyond those are dutiable regardless of the general allowance.

New in 2026: a passenger aged eighteen or above is allowed clearance of one new laptop, including a notepad computer, free of duty. This sits outside the general allowance rather than eating into it — a genuinely useful change for students and returning professionals.

Green channel, red channel, and declaring

Indian airports operate the standard two-channel system. The green channel is for passengers with nothing to declare — nothing dutiable, nothing prohibited, nothing over the allowance. The red channel is for everyone else.

Choosing the green channel while carrying dutiable goods is not a technicality. It is a declaration that you have nothing to declare, and being found with excess goods afterwards is treated very differently from having declared them and paid. If you are genuinely unsure whether something counts, the red channel is the cheap option.

Duty on goods above the allowance is charged at the rate in force under the Customs Tariff. Rates change and are the one figure worth confirming on the day rather than trusting to an article — the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs publishes the current position.

What you cannot simply carry in

Beyond the allowance, some categories are restricted or prohibited outright regardless of value: narcotics, certain wildlife and plant products under CITES, counterfeit goods, and satellite phones, which require prior authorisation in India and are seized routinely at arrival.

Currency has its own regime and is not part of the baggage allowance at all. Cash above the notified thresholds must be declared on arrival, and the rules on carrying Indian currency differ from those on foreign exchange.

Agricultural produce, seeds, meat and dairy are frequently restricted for biosecurity reasons — a point worth checking against your destination too, since a souvenir that leaves one country legally may not enter the next. Our currency guide covers the money side of the same journey.

Practical habits that avoid trouble

Keep receipts for significant purchases made abroad, in a form you can produce quickly. Know roughly what your bag is worth rather than guessing under pressure at a counter. Do not carry goods through customs on behalf of someone you do not know, and do not accept a package from a stranger at an airport.

If you are moving back to India after a long posting rather than returning from a trip, you are in a different regime entirely — transfer of residence — with its own conditions and its own benefits. Treat it as a separate process and start it before you fly.

Rules that changed once can change again. The figures here are those notified in February 2026; check the current position with Indian Customs before a trip where the answer would materially change what you pack.