More Stories

Informist, Tuesday, Jun. 2, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court will decide whether activity trackers or fitness bands are communication devices attracting higher customs duty of 10% or 20%, or pedometers attracting a duty of only 7.5%. The court issued a notice to the customs department on GOQii Technologies Pvt. Ltd.'s plea challenging the classification of fitness bands as communication devices.

 

Citing an example, the petitioner asked whether an imported car with a Bluetooth device would be considered a communication device, and argued that a similar logic should apply to it as it imports fitness bands from China and they must be classified as pedometers, said GOQii Technologies.

 

GOQii Technologies said the activity trackers are equipped with various medical-grade sensors which, in turn, depending upon the model, provide a range of features. The petitioner stated that such activity trackers have a Bluetooth feature too. However, it is an ancillary feature whereby the GOQii application, when connected, receives data for the purpose of historical analysis, it said. It is not under dispute that the key functionalities of the activity tracker do not require connection with a mobile device or application, said GOQii Technologies.

 

The customs department argued that the activity tracker monitors a lot of health parameters through various components. These parameters cannot be analysed without first being transmitted to a paired smart device and subsequently through GOQii servers, which process and repackage the data so that it can be viewed on the paired device, the department said. The data can then be displayed and stored on the GOQii app, it said.

 

Bluetooth connectivity is essential to analyse and store data in the smart phone, the customs department said. The activity tracker can store data only for 24 hours, after which it is erased if not transmitted to the smart phone via Bluetooth, it said. Thus, it is the Bluetooth transceiver that enables the user to fully access all of the activity tracker functionalities, it said. Accordingly, the principal function of the device is imparted by the hardware module, namely the Bluetooth transceiver, the department said.

 

The Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal had ruled that the activity tracker is fully functional and provides the intended use to the person wearing it only when the tracking activities are communicated to expert coaches for their view or for further processing and the results are sent back in the form of reading of vital parameters with suitable messages from expert coaches. Therefore, an activity tracker can be categorised as an apparatus having the facility for tracking vital parameters, including the pedometer function, and for the tracking data to be transmitted and received in the form of data, voice, or image, which are appropriately covered under the scope of communication devices, it had said.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd. by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt. Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (11) 4220-1000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.