Horses for polo imported into India falls under tariff item 0101 29 10. The standard rate of basic customs duty in the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 is 30%, and integrated tax is 5%. Below is the whole bill worked at an assessable value of ₹10,00,000, with the base each levy is charged on.
Bring in ₹10,00,000 of horses for polo and customs will ask for ₹3,96,500, which is 39.65% of what the consignment is assessed at. That is not one charge. It is four, and each is charged on a base that includes the ones before it.
Basic customs duty of ₹3,00,000 comes off the assessable value at 30%. Assessable value is cost, insurance and freight plus landing charges where they apply, so it is higher than the invoice value, and every line below is higher with it.
The Social Welfare Surcharge of ₹30,000 is 10% of the basic customs duty, not of the value. Section 110 of the Finance Act, 2018 levies it on the aggregate of the duties of customs collected under section 12 of the Customs Act, 1962.
Integrated tax of ₹66,500 is the large one, and it is charged at 5% on the value plus the duties above it, because section 3(8) of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 defines the base that way. The rate is carried under CBIC notification 009/2025, schedule I. If your business is registered under GST this is normally available as input tax credit, so it is a cash flow cost rather than a final cost. The duty above it is neither.
Of the ₹3,96,500 above, exactly ₹3,00,000 can be paid with a RoDTEP or RoSCTL duty-credit scrip instead of cash. Regulation 6(1) of the Electronic Duty Credit Ledger Regulations, 2021 provides that the duty credit in an e-scrip is used for payment of duties of customs specified in the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, which is the basic customs duty line and nothing else. The remaining ₹96,500 of surcharge, integrated tax and cess on the same Bill of Entry is paid in cash.
So a scrip bought below face value saves you that discount on ₹3,00,000, not on ₹3,96,500. On a line like this one the instrument is worth attention in proportion to the basic customs duty, which is why the first number on this page matters more than the total. How the buy side works, or read what a duty-credit scrip is end to end.
Where a trade agreement covers this line, the preferential rate replaces the basic customs duty rate. Because both the surcharge and the integrated tax are computed on a base that includes basic customs duty, a lower rate pulls all three down together, so the saving is larger than the rate difference looks. At 0% for ASEAN countries, the whole bill on ₹10,00,000 falls from ₹3,96,500 to ₹50,000.
A preference is never automatic. It applies against a valid certificate of origin, and the Customs (Administration of Rules of Origin under Trade Agreements) Rules, 2020 put the burden of proving origin on the importer, who must hold the supporting information rather than simply pass on the certificate. The preferential rates here are the 2025 schedule.
Classification within a heading changes the rate, so it is worth reading the siblings before settling on a line.
| Code | Description | Duty | IGST |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0101 21 00 | Pure-bred breeding animals: | 0% | 5% |
The duty rate is the standard rate of duty in the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975. The schedule states it as "30%". The integrated tax rate is the rate for this line under the CBIC integrated tax rate schedules, carried under notification 009/2025. The Social Welfare Surcharge is levied by section 110 of the Finance Act, 2018, and the bases used above come from sections 3(8) and 3(9) of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975.
These rates are published as at the date they were extracted. Duty rates change by notification, and a notification can take effect the day it is issued. Confirm the rate against the tariff in force before you file a Bill of Entry or price a consignment on it. This page is not classification advice, and a wrong tariff line makes every number on it wrong together.
