Breaking 31 Bad Customs

October 31, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Welcome to yet another edition, chief!

In today’s edition — Old customs rules were a mess — 31 notifications all the way from the 1950s laying down regulations in 31 confusing ways. Now, the customs department has decided to do some Diwali cleaning by bringing together details of all duties and exemptions in one place. Also, we tell you that Pablo Escobar’s Medellín has done the unthinkable: it has found a place on National Geographic’s ‘Best of the World 2026’.

CBIC Simplifies Customs Rules

Vishwas Ved

Every importer in India knows how complicated customs rules can be. For every shipment, one has to check different government rules to know what import tax has to be paid. 

Over the years, there have been scores of government notifications regarding customs duty, and each one of them either made an amendment or added a new condition.

In fact, some of these rules even repeated the same things in different words in another notification.

Businesses justifiably complained that sometimes it took them hours to find the right notification for their imported goods.

But now, that ordeal is a thing of the past because the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs has decided to make things simpler. 

On October 24, the department took 31 customs notifications — some dating back to the 1950s — and turned them into a single document one can refer to. 

The new notification, effective from tomorrow i.e. November 1, is really good news for people who import or export goods.

Why This Matters 

This move is a big step towards making sure that things are simpler and easier for traders. 

This also means businesses won’t have to waste time at ports and can start the distribution of the imported goods quickly.

The new document has also retained all the existing duty exemptions and benefits from previous notifications.

So, whether it’s fish feed, crude oil, or medical equipment — importers can now look at one table and get all the answers they need.

For example, crude palm oil attracts a 10% customs duty, while fish feed and aquatic feed materials are taxed at 5%. 

Certain bunker fuels used in ships, such as IFO 180 CST and Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil (VLSFO), have a zero customs duty until March 31, 2026. On the other hand, coal and lignite carry a 2.5% duty.

Similarly, life-saving drugs and diagnostic kits are fully exempt, while some pharmaceutical ingredients face only a 5% duty.

Ease of Doing Business

This reform goes well with India’s push for Ease of Doing Business. By simplifying the structure of customs duties, the government is making India more attractive for global traders and investors.

For small and medium enterprises, this is especially helpful. Big companies could still manage to get things done with the help of lawyers and consultants. But small businesses struggled and inadvertently made mistakes that sometimes got them penalised. 

But with this single notification, everyone — big or small — has equal access to clear information.

From Escobar to Espresso

There was a time when any mention of Medellín made people think only of drugs and drug lords. And they were not being unfair. The Colombian city was the den of Pablo Escobar, one of the world’s most feared criminals. 

But it seems the city and its people have decided to look beyond its past. Today, Medellín is also known for coffee, art, and cool music. 

The city has completely changed, according to a Forbes report, and is now among National Geographic’s ‘Best of the World 2026’ — a list of 25 fantastic locations across the world.

Medellín joins dream destinations like South Korea, Italy’s Dolomites, and Spain’s Basque Country. International arrivals to Medellín have grown an estimated 17.2% this year, while the country welcomed a record-breaking seven million visitors last year, and it is expected to do even better this year.

The streets of Medellín that once saw gang wars and killings almost every day are a cozy place to have a drink and listen to good music. 

Places like Comuna 13, which was a dangerous neighbourhood during Escobar’s reign, are now covered in attractive murals.

Yes, tourists are thronging to the Colombian city. But it doesn’t stop there. Those who have the luxury of working from anywhere are even choosing to stay back for good. 

The cynic in you may want to think that Medellín is making an effort to whitewash its bloody past. But that’s not true. People there are just choosing to move on with their lives.

So, should you put the city on your travel list? Yes, of course.  

And while you’re there enjoying its natural beauty and a beverage of your choice, feel free to check out a neighborhood called Envigado where Escobar spent his childhood. Nobody will judge you.

183 Million

That’s the number of email passwords leaked in a massive data breach. This includes accounts associated with Gmail. Troy Hunt, an Australian security researcher who runs the breach-notification site, Have I Been Pwned, claimed that the stolen trove, which has surfaced online, contains 3.5 terabytes of data. The compromised dataset contains 183 million unique accounts and about 16.4 million addresses that have not been affected by previous breaches. Users can visit HaveIBeenPwned.com to check if their credentials have been compromised. The site gives a detailed timeline of a flagged email breach.

—UPS cuts 34,000 jobs so far this year. United Parcel Service posted third-quarter results that handily beat Wall Street's expectations and gave details about its turnaround efforts, including approximately 34,000 job cuts. UPS said in a regulatory filing that it closed daily operations at 93 leased and owned buildings during the first nine months of this year as part of its turnaround plan. The company said that it is still looking to identify additional buildings to close.

—OpenAI lays groundwork for a $1-trillion IPO. OpenAI is laying the groundwork for an initial public offering that could value the company at up to $1 trillion, Reuters reported. OpenAI is considering filing with securities regulators as soon as the second half of 2026. In preliminary discussions, the company has looked at raising $60 billion at the low end and likely more. They cautioned that talks are early and plans, including the figures and timing, could change depending on business growth and market conditions.

—PayPal unveils partnership with ChatGPT for payments. PayPal said this week it had entered into a deal with OpenAI that will allow ChatGPT users to buy products using the payment firm's platform. Announcing its first dividend in its 27-year history, the company said PayPal said the OpenAI partnership will connect its global merchant network to ChatGPT, enabling businesses to sell products and services within the wildly popular generative AI app that has more than 800 million weekly active users.

—Elon Musk launches Grokipedia to compete with Wikipedia. Elon Musk unveiled this week his own version of Wikipedia, the crowdsourced online encyclopedia, with entries edited by xAI, his artificial intelligence company. The new project, Grokipedia, would “purge out the propaganda” flooding Wikipedia, Mr. Musk claimed in a post on his social media site, X. Grokipedia tallied more than 800,000 AI-generated encyclopedia entries, compared with Wikipedia’s nearly eight million human-written ones. 

—Credit card spends hit record ₹2.2 trillion in September. Credit card spends touched a record high of ₹2.17 trillion in September 2025, driven by festive season demand and increased consumption following GST rate cuts. The figure marked a 14% month-on-month rise over August. Previously, credit card spends had peaked at ₹2.015 trillion in March 2025 and ₹2.02 trillion in October 2024. In comparison, credit card spending in August 2025 stood at ₹1.91 trillion, and ₹1.76 trillion in September 2024.

ICYMI | Brat GPT

Missed last week's update? We know consuming too much junk online causes brain rot in humans. But research published this month reveals that even AI machines, especially LLMs, become bratty and start acting up if they survive on random junk available online. They skip logic, manufacture facts, spout nonsense, and even become narcissistic, making them a not-so-reliable working partner.

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