Chess Olympiad winning team India had to pay a custom duty of Rs 6300 on gold medals despite the exemption

Despite the exemption, Chess Olympiad winning team India had to pay a custom duty of Rs 6300 to the courier service to get their Chess Olympiad gold medals

New Delhi: The Indian team created history by winning the FIDE Online Chase Olympiad for the first time in August this year.

Chess is one of the major events in the Olympiad game which was held online earlier this year due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

The team India finally got to hold off their gold medals with their team vice-captain Srinath Narayan after over three months of winning the tournament.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with everyone hailed and congratulated the Indian team on becoming champions.

Whereas on Wednesday captain Srinath Narayan took to Twitter and shared receiving the medals after three months of winning the tournament. However, his post surprised everyone when he said that, the team had to pay customs duty on their gold medals, while there was an exemption for the same.

The medals are here! Thank you @FIDE_chess. On the way to dispatch them to the rest of the team now.

It wasn't easy getting it! It reached from Russia to India in three days, but took more than a week to reach from Bangalore to India, and had to pay customs duty! pic.twitter.com/vVGAbFQ8N5
— Srinath Narayanan (@nsrinath69) December 2, 2020

The medals were lying at the Bengaluru airport for a week before it was couriered to Chennai. Later after receiving the medals the vice-captain sent the medals to the other members of the team.

According to the notification issued by the central government on June 30, 2017, medals and trophies won by members of the Indian sports team for participating in International tournaments are exempt from custom duties.

According to a media report, Narayan said that he made to pay a custom duty of Rs 6300 to the courier service 'DHL Express India Private Limited'.

He said," I was so tired of all this I just paid it. The custom officials opened up the package and asked me what was inside and what it was made of. And then I had to give them an Official Document on the chemical composition."

An awkward situation took place in the final when the Indian team members Nihal Sarin and Divya Deshmukh lost their internet connection. Both the Indians were holding good position in their contest. However, following the controversy, the International Chess Federation later announced that the two countries would be declared joint winners of the Chess Olympiad.

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International Chess Federation