Hi,

  I am willing to buy some batteries  probably LiFePo4 for rock crawler and I was looking at the deals at hobby king. I have not imported batteries earlier and I am hesitant about importing them. I want to know what are the issues or experiences one had importing them.

I am also gonna buy some more rc stuff like battery charger,radio set, esc etc  from hobby king and I think it will be overall cheaper for me to import batteries too.

I got an useful link to calculate import duty on Lithium ion, poly batteries

http://www.dutycalculator.com/new-import-duty-and-tax-calculation/

Under category select

1] Product description = Lithium polymer batteries
2] Product category = Electronics and video games
                              -- Batteries and charges
                              -- Battery of Lithium

Fill up rest and calculate 

Why you make it so complex.. Importing battery have not been a big issue as Rx Tx..

refer http://www.rcindia.org/rc-outlets-and-resellers/anything-and-everything-hobby-king/msg136497/#msg136497

you could have searched the forum before posting.These issues have been answered many times.

Just imported 6S 5000 mah Lipo battery from US. Took 2.5 months but no fuss.

Customs Cost : INR 900

2.5 months!!! That's some kind of record i guess

You would like to know that I have had a big headache with customs last time. I had imported some research and development related product samples from Germany and they detained the product even though I proved to them that they were samples and that it should not be charged customs. It was a big fuss for 3 months !! for no reason at all and just because it came from Germany they though it is a high value good   I fought them until they released it without paying a single penny and loosing a great deal of time.
And not only does one have to face issues in importing, exporting electronics is banned in India. They ask for bribe to export electronics!! Domestic couriers tend to avoid shipping batteries. When one faces harassing issues like these in this country, then it is likely that one gets thinking about importing batteries.

By the way, thanks for the link you gave.

Did your parcel contain only the 5000mAh battery or had some more stuff you bought?
What was the invoice value?

2.5 months is a long time its almost quarter of a year. Incredible India!!

I also was surprised! Atleast it came.
I visited customs office once & the problem sometimes is that the get transferred every 6 months (as they told me). Then they refer it to there books & others...that takes time. Also look at the faces of those crooks...they seem wrapped in corruption. When I told that I too am from government, they became reasonable.

Battery & charging leads. Invoice value with shipping was $170

I have herd that the customs people have been given a set target for every month. Its something like a sales thing that they have to collect so and so customs every month. It has to have a big corruption chain in it. The customs paid documents are cheap xerox with  written data not noticeable even with a magnifying glass. Who knows where the money goes. All this strategy is designed by the Individual governing bodies of state. After all buddy, they have stomach to be filled and pockets to be over filled.

       The customs people have a tendency to weigh an individual as if they are checking how much money can be expelled out of him...

Abhay,

         I would again like to Thank you for the link you posted. 

I came to know through the link that importing Rx and Tx requires import license. I was about to order Turnigy 9x from hobby king. My parcel could have got detained in customs....
anyway I need to search and find some one who has an import license and who can do the job for me.

Wings of fire, I think you need to do some more reading (in the same thread)
A lot of people import stuff incl 2.4Ghz radio without any issues - just read the thread and you will understand how to order

+1 raja...

I know people who have imported Dx7 via registered post...They just undervalue it

raja_mastana

Thank you for bringing it to my notice  . I could not read the thread completely  yesterday due to time constraint. I will read it thoroughly

And Thanks to doctor.