Pooja and festival sets
Camphor, dhoop, agarbathis and sandalwood are all prohibited. A standard pooja thali usually contains three or four restricted items at once.
Check before you buy
What cannot be shipped out of India
This list is not advisory. Concealed or prohibited items carry a penalty of twenty thousand rupees and the shipment is not returned.
What cannot be shipped from India by courier?
Gold, silver, precious metals and stones, currency, batteries and power banks, aerosols and perfumes, cooking oils, camphor, sandalwood, incense, seeds and plant material, knives and scissors, narcotics and prohibited medicines. Concealing any of them carries a twenty thousand rupee penalty and the shipment is not returned.
Read this part
The penalty is not a warning, it is a charge
If concealment or prohibited items are found in your shipment, a penalty of twenty thousand rupees is levied and the shipment is not returned.
That applies to the whole shipment, not just the item that caused it. A single power bank tucked into a box of clothes puts everything in that box at risk, and the money is gone along with the goods.
This is why we open and check every parcel on arrival rather than treating inspection as a nice extra. We would far rather find it on the bench in Secunderabad, message you, and take it out.
The full list
Items couriers will not carry
Grouped by the reason they are refused, which usually makes it clearer why something unexpected is on the list.
| Category | Items | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Precious and monetary | Gold, silver, precious metal, precious stones, currency and coins | Value concentration, customs exposure and uninsurable risk |
| Flammable and chemical | Petroleum by products including lipstick, paints and perfumes, nail polish, camphor (karpooram), match boxes, aerosols, party poppers | Fire risk in an aircraft hold |
| Incense and fragrant wood | Dhoop sticks, agarbathis, sandalwood and sandalwood powder | Combustible, and sandalwood is separately restricted |
| Oils and reactive agents | Cooking oils, oxidising agents including surf and washing powders | Leakage and chemical reaction in transit |
| Adhesives | Fevi Kwik, Fevicol and similar | Classified as dangerous goods |
| Agricultural and organic | Seeds, animal and plant saplings, leaves, copra in any form | Biosecurity rules at the destination |
| Power | Batteries, power banks | Lithium cells are restricted in air cargo |
| Sharp and weapons | Knives and guns including toy versions, scissors | Aviation security, regardless of intent |
| Controlled substances | Narcotic substances including heroin, cocaine, ganja and tobacco, narcotic drugs, prohibited medicines | Illegal to export, import or both |
| Other restricted | Dangerous goods such as magnets and M-seal, carbon papers, playing cards | Carrier and destination country restrictions |
This is the carrier prohibited list for shipments leaving India. Your destination country may restrict further, and Australia in particular enforces biosecurity far more strictly than most.
The ones that catch people out
Six things nobody expects to be on the list
These are the items we find most often during inspection, almost always bought in good faith by somebody who had no reason to think there was a problem.
Anything with a battery in the box
Toys, electronics, torches, some gift sets. The battery does not have to be the product, it only has to be present.
Whole spices and dried goods
Cumin, mustard, fennel and coriander are botanically seeds. Ground versions are treated differently, which is why the specific product matters.
Cosmetics and perfume
Lipstick, nail polish and perfume are classed as petroleum by products. This is one of the most common surprises on the list.
Pickles and anything in oil
Cooking oils are prohibited outright, which rules out most traditional pickles regardless of how well they are sealed.
Scissors and toy weapons
Scissors are prohibited, and toy knives and guns are treated exactly as real ones for aviation security purposes.
Medicines
The category with the most grey area
Medicines are not a simple yes or no, which is why they sit separately from the list above. Prohibited medicines and narcotic drugs are refused outright and there is nothing to discuss. Everything else depends on the product, the destination and the documentation.
Where medicines can move at all, they generally require the recipient's prescription, a copy of the recipient's identity document and sometimes visa or passport details. On some lanes there is an additional handling charge of around eight hundred rupees. Over the counter and ayurvedic preparations are often, though not always, more straightforward.
The United States is the most restrictive destination we serve for this category and refusals are common even with complete paperwork. Send us the exact product name and strength before you buy anything, and we will tell you honestly whether it can go.
What we need before shipping medicines
- The recipient's prescription
- The recipient's identity document
- Visa or passport details on some lanes
- Exact product name and strength
- Destination country confirmed in advance
Destination rules sit on top
Clearing India is only half of it
Everything above is about what can legally and safely leave India. Your destination country then applies its own rules on arrival, and those are sometimes stricter still.
Australia is the clearest example. Its biosecurity regime is enforced rather than merely published, and wooden items, leather, dried flowers, herbal preparations and most food face genuine scrutiny. A parcel that would reach a London address without comment can be held, treated at your cost or destroyed on arrival in Melbourne.
The United States restricts food and medicines tightly, and since every shipment now requires a formal customs entry, an item that triggers a question holds up the whole parcel rather than just itself.
We check both sides during inspection: the carrier list for leaving India, and the destination rules for arriving. Asking us before you buy costs you a message and saves the parcel.
Common questions
Questions we get asked most
Gold, silver, other precious metals and precious stones are refused by couriers regardless of form, and that includes jewellery, coins and bullion. The restriction is about value concentration and the customs and insurance exposure that comes with it, not about what the item is for. There is no version of this we can work around.
No, and this surprises almost everyone. Dhoop sticks, agarbathis, camphor and sandalwood are all on the prohibited list because they are combustible. The same applies to match boxes. A pooja set that looks entirely harmless usually contains three or four items from this list.
A penalty of twenty thousand rupees is levied and the shipment is not returned. That is the carrier rule, it applies to the whole shipment and not just the offending item, and it is the single strongest reason to let us inspect everything before it is packed for export.
Whole spices that are botanically seeds, such as cumin, mustard, fennel, coriander and fenugreek, fall under the seed restriction. Ground spices and commercially packaged blends are treated differently. This is a genuine grey area that also varies by destination, so ask us about the specific product rather than assuming either way.
No. Batteries and power banks are both explicitly prohibited. This also catches items with batteries built in or included in the box, which is easy to miss with toys, electronics and some gifts. If a product ships with a battery, tell us before you order it.
Yes, and that is exactly what inspection is for. We find it on the bench in Secunderabad, message you, and either hold the item, return it to the Indian seller while it is still within their returns window, or dispose of it on your instruction. The rest of your parcel ships normally.
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Where to go next
Not sure about something?
Send us the product before you buy it. A message costs nothing. A confiscated parcel costs twenty thousand rupees and the goods.
