Working professionals and their families
Singapore has a long-settled Indian working population, and a lot of what we book is simply the ordinary traffic of family life — clothes, documents, books, festival items, things left behind on a trip home.
Documents and parcels from our HSR Layout counter to Singapore addresses, booked on a DTDC air waybill. Singapore is an easy destination to deliver into and a very unforgiving one to make a mistake in — the prohibitions are absolute, the penalties are real, and a few items that are entirely ordinary in India are simply illegal there.
Singapore’s import regime is unusually simple to describe. Most goods carry no customs duty — duty is reserved for a narrow list including liquor, tobacco, motor vehicles and petroleum. What almost everything does attract is GST at 9%, assessed on the value of the goods including freight and insurance and collected from the recipient. There is no large personal allowance to plan around, so assume GST will be charged and declare accurately.
The hard edges are the prohibitions, and Singapore enforces them in a way that surprises people who are used to a warning. E-cigarettes, vaporisers and all vaping components are illegal to import, possess or use — this is not a customs formality, it carries fines and prosecution. Chewing gum cannot be imported for sale, with only therapeutic exceptions. Controlled and prescription medicines need approval from the Health Sciences Authority beyond small personal quantities, and traditional or herbal preparations get looked at carefully. Anything drug-related sits in a category where the penalties are among the severest anywhere in the world, and no part of that is negotiable.
Food is regulated by the Singapore Food Agency. Small quantities of sealed, commercially packaged, non-meat, non-dairy food are the practical limit for a personal parcel. Meat and egg products from non-approved sources are prohibited, and homemade food is not accepted.
Addressing is the one thing Singapore makes genuinely easy. The six-digit postal code identifies a specific building, so with the code plus the block and unit number in the standard #12-34 form, a courier can find the door precisely. Send the block number, street name, unit number, postal code and a Singapore mobile number, and there is very little that can go wrong at the delivery end.
Ordinary personal goods are fine. The banned list is short, specific and enforced without exception.
The vape rule is the one we repeat most often. People send a device as a gift without a thought, and it is a prosecutable offence in Singapore. Do not put one in a parcel.
Singapore has a long-settled Indian working population, and a lot of what we book is simply the ordinary traffic of family life — clothes, documents, books, festival items, things left behind on a trip home.
Employment paperwork, certificates and attested documents. Short lane, clean declaration, no food or agricultural questions attached.
Books, clothing, sealed snacks and personal-quantity medicine to Singapore's universities. Keep medicine within personal quantity and send the prescription — the Health Sciences Authority takes a close interest in anything beyond that.
Product and hardware samples from Bangalore offices to Singapore counterparts. Most goods carry no duty here, but GST is assessed on the declared value, so the invoice needs to be right rather than optimistic.
There isn't a published one, and that is a deliberate position rather than an evasion. We hold no international rate card that would remain true, so every international consignment is quoted individually once we know the destination, the weight and the contents. Ask and you will have a firm figure before we collect.
DTDC. We are an authorised DTDC booking partner; the parcel moves on a genuine DTDC air waybill through DTDC's overseas network.
GST at 9% is assessed on imported goods including freight, and collected from the recipient. Customs duty applies only to a short list of goods — liquor, tobacco, vehicles and petroleum — that we would not be booking anyway.
No. E-cigarettes and every vaping component are illegal to import into Singapore and the offence sits with the person receiving it as much as with the sender. This is the single most serious mistake we see people attempt on this route.
Small quantities of sealed, commercially packaged, labelled, non-meat and non-dairy food. Nothing homemade, nothing perishable. The Singapore Food Agency regulates imports and quantities beyond personal use need clearance.
Personal quantities in original packaging with the prescription, yes. Beyond that, Health Sciences Authority approval is required, and traditional or herbal preparations are examined closely.
We do not publish a transit figure. You get the commitment your shipment is actually given at booking, plus the air waybill number.
Block number, street name, unit number written as #12-34, the six-digit postal code and a Singapore mobile. The postal code alone identifies the building, so getting it right removes almost all delivery risk.
Give us the postal code, the unit number, the weight and the contents. Free collection across Bengaluru and a firm quote before we take the box.