Wholesale items from China: how to import them into India

China wholesale market online and offline: where buyers look

Sourcing guides name Yiwu, Guangzhou and Shenzhen as the cities buyers visit, and Alibaba, Made-in-China, Global Sources, DHgate and AliExpress as the sites they search. We have not checked any of them, so this page makes no claim about their prices, minimum orders or how reliable a seller on them is. What we can tell you is that the checks below are the same whichever city or site the stock comes from.

If you would rather buy inside India and skip customs, Indian B2B sites such as IndiaMART and udaan are compared in our guide to online wholesale websites.

How to import wholesale items from China: 4 checks

Do them in this order, and finish the first three before you pay a factory. Every step happens on a government site, linked in the step; nothing here needs an agent, though a customs broker can file the last one for you.

1. 1

   Check the import policy for your ITC(HS) code

   Open DGFT's “Schedule 1 - Import Policy - ITC(HS) 2022” and search the 8-digit ITC(HS) code of your product. DGFT keeps separate lists for Restricted, Prohibited and STE (state trading enterprise) items (checked 22 Oct 2026). Not sure of the code? Start from the HSN line in our HSN code finder.

   You should see: Your code either sits on none of the three lists, or on one of them with the condition DGFT attaches. Restricted means you need what that condition says before you import.

2. 2

   Get an IEC in your firm’s name

   Apply on DGFT's IEC Profile Management page. “To apply for an IEC, PAN, bank account & valid address in the name of the firm is mandatory”, and the firm can be a proprietorship, partnership, LLP, company, trust, HUF or society. The fee, the documents and the yearly update are in our IEC code guide.

   You should see: An IEC for the firm; since GST, the IEC is the same as the firm's PAN. Without it, DGFT's rule is that no import is made unless you are specifically exempted.

   

3. 3

   Check BIS’s compulsory-certification list

   Find the product on BIS's Scheme-I (ISI mark) list. Toys are on it (IS 9873 parts for non-electric toys, IS 15644:2006 for electric toys), as are stainless steel cookware (IS 14756:2022), wrought aluminium utensils (IS 1660:2024) and domestic pressure cookers (IS 2347:2017), checked 22 Oct 2026. If your product is listed, ask the factory for its BIS licence for that IS number before you pay.

   You should see: Either no row for your product, or an IS number you can match to the licence details the factory sends. If the product is listed and the factory sends no licence for that IS number, do not pay.

4. 4

   Read the duty, then file the bill of entry

   Look up the 8-digit tariff line in the Customs Tariff on cbic.gov.in (Customs, then Tariff) and note the duty shown for that line; we print no rate here. The bill of entry is the import declaration you file with customs: on ICEGATE, after ICEGATE registration, by you as importer or by a customs broker (ICEGATE registration FAQ, checked 22 Oct 2026).

   You should see: A duty figure tied to your exact tariff line, and an ICEGATE user ID for whoever files the entry.

China toys wholesale market: a worked example

A Meesho reseller prices a first carton of plastic toys from China, none of them battery-run. On DGFT she searches the ITC(HS) line for toys in heading 9503 and checks it against the Restricted, Prohibited and STE lists. Her IEC is issued in the name of her proprietorship, with its PAN and bank account.

Toys sit on BIS's list under the Toys (Quality Control) Order, 2020, so the factory's BIS licence for IS 9873 comes before her advance payment. For duty she enters the basic customs duty that CBIC's tariff shows for her line; we do not put a number in her sum. When she resells in India, toys other than electronic toys are taxed at 5% GST (Notification 9/2025, Schedule I S.No. 497). The toy-by-toy BIS and GST table is on our toys HSN code page.

Buying wholesale from China: common mistakes

Paying before checking the BIS list. For a listed product, such as toys or pressure cookers, the factory's BIS licence for the IS number is what makes the stock sellable here; ask for it before the advance, not after the carton ships.

Importing in a personal name. DGFT asks for PAN, bank account and address in the firm's name for an IEC. So place the order, pay the factory and file the entry in that same firm's name, not a personal one.

Using a blog's round duty figure. Import guides quote one percentage for everything from China; the duty is set per tariff line, so read yours in CBIC's Customs Tariff before you price the lot.

Ordering a Restricted item without reading its condition. DGFT's Schedule 1 lists Restricted items separately; a code on that list needs whatever the condition says, and that has to be in hand before the goods arrive.