I had an L3+ shipment that was to be delivered in the first week of September via UPS, but has subsequenty gone on hold, as it is not cleared by customs.
As per the UPS guy, the District Commissioner (Customs) has been directed by RBI to not allow any further shipments of bitcoin mining equipment, until further notice, due to concerns that these could be used to fund illegal activities such as terrorism. The DC is basically saying " get an approval letter from RBI and i will clear it". So it guess its going to be a loooooooong wait till we get shipments cleared, by which time the profitability of using the miner will go down massively, to the point that it becomes an expensive paperweight!.
IMO it is absolutely ridiculous, and geared towards making life as difficult as possible for miners in India, with everything getting taxed to the maximum possible extent for an "acche din" that never shows up on the horizon.
They are making life a hell and that is the only thing they are good at.
Date : Feb 01, 2017
RBI cautions users of Virtual Currencies
The Reserve Bank of India had cautioned the users, holders and traders of Virtual Currencies (VCs), including Bitcoins, about the potential financial, operational, legal, customer protection and security related risks that they are exposing themselves to, vide its press release dated December 24, 2013.
The Reserve Bank of India advises that it has not given any licence / authorisation to any entity / company to operate such schemes or deal with Bitcoin or any virtual currency. As such, any user, holder, investor, trader, etc. dealing with Virtual Currencies will be doing so at their own risk.
Jose J. Kattoor
Chief General Manager
Press Release: 2016-17/2054
Where is it written its not allowed? customs or shipping company.. one of them is playing around.. NOT DONE!