Notes from the trade desk
The costing and compliance mistakes we made ourselves, written up so you do not have to repeat them.
Import costing
4 min
The Social Welfare Surcharge mistake that understates every landed cost
SWS is charged on the aggregate of customs duties, not on Basic Duty alone. If your spreadsheet does the latter, every import you …
26 Jul 2026
Import costing
3 min
IGST on imports is cash flow, not cost — and mixing them up ruins your pricing
A GST-registered importer reclaims IGST as input credit. Basic Duty, AIDC, cess and surcharge are gone forever. Treating those two…
24 Jul 2026
Export costing
3 min
Your bank spread is eating a quarter of your export margin
You realise export proceeds at the buying rate and buy freight at the selling rate. Using one rate for both hides a real cost that…
22 Jul 2026