GST Processing Fees from Courier Companies

[D'Andy]

Are the processing fees for GST clearance, the same for different courier companies? Most of my recent purchases had been under the radar and delivered sans-GST, and some others with the GST paid upon price purchase. Today, I received a call from DHL that they had assisted me to pay the GST in advance (RM62), and was further charging RM53 being the processing fees for clearing the GST in advance. Sounds rather steep to charge a processing fee that was 85% of the GST that they helped to pay in advance, and the caller told me that it was the company policy and that I would have to pay in full to secure the package. No 2 ways about it. Obviously, it made for more sense if we were paying the RM53 for a higher value item with higher value GST.

So now we know that GST processing fees for DHL = RM53.

Can we have a compilation from the rest on the other courier companies' charges? Thanks. 

[meoramri]

I believe you can challenge this. The same amount is what Pos Malaysia charge if you want them to pay for the GST first (your choice) and get it out to the nearest post malaysia branch. Otherwise, you can personally visit the bonded warehouse in KLIA to get it.

You have a choice.

DHL cannot force it upon you to 'do this service' on your behalf. This is because you can still negotiate directly with customs for the final value. Your right for representation is compromised.

[kopykopy]

Just to share.  Pos Malaysia did not "pay first" to get it out from KLIA warehouse to my General Post Office in my city.  It was sent straight to my City's General Post Office and they called me to go there to pick it up and I had to open the box in front of Customs Officer and he just took calculated 6% of the price tag = GST payable.  No other fees was charged.

I suspect the courier company will fax a contract to the recipient to sign first and fax back to courier company before they get GST/Customs clearance.  In the contract it probably says something like "the Customer agrees to pay service charges bla bla bla....."

[D'Andy]

The supplier informed me after DHL picked up the parcel since shipping charges were to be borne by the buyer. Thereafter, DHL had notifications by e-mail about package movement but nothing about the processing fees. I queried them today when I was informed to pay for the processing fees; and they said that it was a standard practise by the Company. Googled online and saw many frustrations about the said fees, especially when there were those whom paid more for the processing fees than the GST amount. Eg. Item cost RM500, GST @ 6% equals RM30, DHL processing fees equal RM53. Ouch!

So from your account, PosLaju does not charge such processing fees. Anyone care to share about other courier companies? 

[meoramri]

Just to share.  Pos Malaysia did not "pay first" to get it out from KLIA warehouse to my General Post Office in my city.  It was sent straight to my City's General Post Office and they called me to go there to pick it up and I had to open the box in front of Customs Officer ..."

My mistake. You're right, the fees that Pos Malaysia charge (if you need the service) is to get the package to the nearest branch with a bonded custom warehouse so that you can deal with customs directly. Nevertheless, you still to queue up to face customs.
 

[nikfs1881]

Not sure about Malaysia but this is a standard practice worldwide...nothing unusual about it. I am based in Switzerland. CHF20 is charged as processing fee per package/parcel (regardless the total purchase price) for the courier service provider (FedEx, DHL, SwissPost, PostNL, etc.) to get any parcel cleared from the custom in addition to the 8% Swiss VAT. The only diff is that some courier service provider will ask for cash payment upon delivery and some will send an invoice 1 week after delivery.

There was one time my family back home sent me a parcel (only bunch of documents and a rm10 coaxial cable). Concerned the hassle and cost if such important docs get lost, my family declared rm500 as the value. I ended up paying chf20 (rm85) + 8% of rm500 for a bunch of documents and a rm10 coaxial cable. Lol

In hindsight, i would rather pay rm53 and get the package in a timely manner rather than having to go and deal with the custom directly.'time is expensive, rm53 cost to save me 1-2 hours of my time dealing with this is worthwhile imho.

Before ordering online, it may be better to factor in all cost incl. the gst and the relevant processing fees (courier companies are usually transparent about the cost - can check their websites). If the total price is more expensive than what it would have cost buying locally, then dont buy online unless it's something which cant be sourced locally. That's what i always do.

[Cocas]

This is a standard practice worldwide...nothing unusual about it. I am based in Switzerland. CHF20 is charged as processing fee for the courier service provider to get any parcel cleared from the custom in addition to the 6% Swiss VAT. There was one time my family back home sent me a parcel (only bunch of documents and a rm10 coaxial cable). Concerned the hassle and cost if such important docs get lost, my family declared rm500 as the value. I ended up paying chf20 (rm85) + 8% of rm500 for a bunch of documents and a rm10 coaxial cable. Lol

In hindsight, i would rather pay rm53 and get the package in a timely manner rather than having to go and deal with the custom directly.'time is expensive, rm53 cost to save me 1-2 hours of my time dealing with this is worthwhile imho.

Fully agree. I wait for about 40minutes to get duty amount from custom officer then queue for 30minutes at post office to pay duty, not to mention I drove 30minutes to get there.

The process: receive poslaju notice to collect item at post office custom dept-go to custom dept open up the parcel to confirm the item- custom officer checking tariff code and finalize duty amount-wait for duty invoice printout-bring duty invoice and queue at post office to pay duty-go back to custom dept to collect item.

[meoramri]

..........
In hindsight, i would rather pay rm53 and get the package in a timely manner rather than having to go and deal with the custom directly.'time is expensive, rm53 cost to save me 1-2 hours of my time dealing with this is worthwhile imho.

............

Unfortunately paying RM53 to Postlaju only gets the package closer to where you are. The queuing process through customs and paying remains the same. In fact, it could be worst if the post office branch is a major centre where the queuing times is much longer.

In my case, the main post office in KL would be the best branch for me to go but I realized that due to the volume of people being served there it would make sense to just queue at the KLIA branch. At the KLIA branch (despite the toll and distance), parking is free and everything was all over within 30 min. Went to collect it during lunch time on a weekday.

Most of my friends that deal via the main branch all consistently mentioned their process time to be more than 1 hour (similar to @Cocas). 

[TickTock]

Please help me understand the import charges on watches. I've seen conflicting information in various places. I think asking experienced watch buyers here will give me accurate information.

I have an incoming German watch in a few months. Watch will be paid prior to shipment including shipping to Malaysia. Fees in Malaysia are my responsibility.

1. I will pay 6% GST (either to the shipper or Customs)

2. Customs duty.
      A. Are watches exempt from customs duty?
      B. If they are not exempt, what is the duty rate?

The watch value will be roughly RM 36,000

Kind regards.

[megaronnt88]

Hi TIcktock,

Care to share a pic of your coming german beauty? Very curious

FYI, I recently bought a german watch but only RM6K++. It was via FedEx... when arrived, I just paid 6% GST to FedEx delivery guy directly (RM390++). So for RM36K value, you can do the math.. RM2K++ for GST.

Cheers

[meoramri]

Please help me understand the import charges on watches. I've seen conflicting information in various places. I think asking experienced watch buyers here will give me accurate information.

I have an incoming German watch in a few months. Watch will be paid prior to shipment including shipping to Malaysia. Fees in Malaysia are my responsibility.

1. I will pay 6% GST (either to the shipper or Customs)

2. Customs duty.
      A. Are watches exempt from customs duty?
      B. If they are not exempt, what is the duty rate?

The watch value will be roughly RM 36,000

Kind regards.

Hi,

Watches are tax free in Malaysia. You would not be taxed on your watch. However, you still need to pay the 6% GST so RM36k x 6% approximately RM2.1k

Do note that the RM value will be determined on the Forex rate at the point that customs gets their hands on it.

[D'Andy]

That was my intention for the sharing, so that we could choose which courier to utilise for more economical (assuming ceteris paribus) means. From the above sharing, we now know for 3 couriers as per the following :

1) DHL - Processing fee of RM53. Package delivered direct to address.

2) PosLaju - No additional processing fees. Package delivered to a designated post office.

3) FedEx - No additional processing fees. Package delivered direct to address.

Any further courier experiences; sharing would be welcomed.

[TickTock]

Thank you for the quick replies. At least it's only GST and not duty in addition.

I dont have any photo of the actual watch but if you go to the Dornblüth & Sohn website it's the 99.5 (5) ST. Under the Collection tab it shows the watch face and brief description. Further if you go to the Movement tab it will show the highly modified ETA movement. I looked at this watch for nearly a year before ordering. As of August 2015, it was a 14 month delivery. Dornblüth has been working on the watch for the past 2 months so it's in production and I believe it will be delivered in October on schedule.

TickTock

[wildaxlrose]

if it is a small amount I just tell pos Malaysia to send to my add and I top up 60 to 80 ringgit can't actually remembers he  amount for their services , if I have multiple or higher priced items I just go to klia and collect it and can try your luck and ask for discount but I prefer Dhl for safety reasons .hope it helps


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[TickTock]

I'm not sure who the manufacturer uses for shipping. It might be DHL coming out of Germany. I haven't gotten to the point in the process to discuss shipping details yet.

I've had the urge to buy another pre owned watch. I know what I want and I have that itch to buy. But with one coming in two months, I need to stay patient. I don't want my watches to get jealous of each other and starting to compete for wrist time. 
The "I want it now" watch will have to wait until next year.

Thank you for the information.

[Sterimar]

I bought a watch for USD725 from USA. The seller charged me USD20 for shipping via USPS First Class International Mail. When the package reached KLIA it was detained. I decided to appoint Poslaju to do the clearance for me and send it to a Poslaju office near me. Below are the charges that I paid at my local Poslaju office.



As you can see, Poslaju handling fee is RM30.00 + RM2.88 GST and Bayaran EDI (SMK) is RM18.00, so it is GST value of your package + RM50.88

[TickTock]

Thank you. I'm getting a more clear view of what I can look forward to.

TickTock

[kygan711]

My stuff got stuck at airport to at customs.
I got 2 choice :
1) Appoint POS office to do all the paperwork and submission for me. Their service fee is like around 50-70. They will quote you first before you appoint them and this is a fixed handling fee. Variable will be the custom fee which is usually just 6% for GST.
2) You go to KLIA and ding dong 0.5 day there to try and haggle if the item is taxable. But if the watch is not taxable then, you only get to save the POS office handling fee but you lose 0.5 day plus petrol and toll to KLIA 2 way.

So usually I just pay the POS malaysia to deal with all this. Wait for them to clear is which is 3-5 days later and they will send to the pos laju which is closest to my home and pay my quoted bill there.

[D'Andy]

Just purchased a piece from overseas and when I chose shipping to Malaysia, the option automatically added in an additional 10% being the indicative VAT cost and seller fees for VAT clearance. So looks like chances of getting non-taxed pieces would be slimmer in the near future.