Good luck bringing 2 x 200 cigarettes into the UK and not declaring.
I would question the knowledge of Delhi Duty Free and IGI staff as they just want to make a sale and will not see you again.
The UK government website is clear in what it says, and it says only 200 cigarettes allowed and if they are for personal use or a gift.
Indian nationals are allowed to bring up to 2 boxes of cigarettes (400 cig sticks in total) without having to declare them at customs in UK.
Source: Delhi duty free & IGI airport international departure information and service desk.
Don’t cheat, declare and custom pay the duty. be a nice person 🙂
The UK tobacco excise duty at the time of writing is
16.5% of the retail price plus £196.42 per thousand cigarettes
the latter of which is pro rata, so it works out to
16.5% of the retail price plus £3.93 on a packet of 20
As far as I can tell, when you declare tobacco, unlike other items, you are liable for duty on all of the tobacco, not just that over your personal allowance. It’s possible that with the amount being only somewhat over the allowance, HMRC might not bother to impose the duty, due to it being somewhat complicated to calculate (what’s the retail price of foreign cigarettes?), but you shouldn’t count on that.
If it were me, I’d just bring 200 (or fewer) cigarettes, confidently walk through the green channel, and then look harder to see if I could find somewhere in the UK that sells them. And remember that the cigarettes in your open pack also count, so be careful if those might bring you over 200.
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