India has revised the customs valuation benchmarks for a narrow range of imports, lowering notified values for gold, silver, palm oils and areca nuts while increasing those for crude soybean oil and brass scrap.
India’s customs authorities have updated tariff values on a narrow set of imported commodities, trimming the benchmarks for several edible oils, gold, silver and areca nuts while lifting the reference price for crude soybean oil and brass scrap. The new schedule, issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs on 15 October and effective from 16 October 2026, changes the valuation used for duty assessment, not the customs duty rates themselves.
The latest notification replaces the tariff tables that had been in force since 1 October, under a framework first established in 2001. In practical terms, that means the benchmark used to calculate duty on covered imports has shifted again, even though the underlying rate of duty has not.
For palm oil and palmolein, the revised values have moved slightly lower. Crude palm oil is now set at $1,223 a metric tonne, down from $1,229, while RBD palm oil has slipped to $1,234 from $1,240. Similar reductions apply across other palm-based categories. By contrast, crude soybean oil has risen to $1,287 a tonne from $1,280, and brass scrap has increased to $8,247 from $8,149.
Gold and silver have also been marked down. The tariff value for specified gold categories has been cut to $1,316 per 10 grams from $1,339, while the silver benchmark has been reduced to $1,907 per kilogram from $1,965. Areca nuts have seen a sharper fall, with the notified value dropping to $10,433 a tonne from $11,574.
The legal basis for the move is Section 14(2) of the Customs Act, 1962, which allows the board to notify tariff values after considering market trends. That distinction matters for importers: the invoice price agreed between buyer and seller is separate from the customs valuation reference, so a stable purchase price does not necessarily translate into an unchanged duty bill.
The notification also underlines that coverage depends on the precise product description and import route. The gold and silver entries apply only to the categories named in the schedule, with some conditions and exclusions linked to post, courier or baggage imports. For customs brokers, traders and refiners, the key task is matching the declaration to the correct entry as well as keeping cost estimates aligned with the revised benchmark.
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