- I Paid A Bribe
- 14 years ago
- 287 views
Bribe for bringing in tablet I got for free
- Customs, Excise and Service Tax
- Customs Check and Clearance
- Paid INR 1,500
I took part in Desktop Summit 2011 in Berlin as a student, and had got a Intel ExoPC tablet for educational purposes. Legally, the device was leased to me for a 3 year period and was the property of Intel Corporation. However, the customs official at the CSI airport insisted for the bill, and when I said its free, he said that they had to value it to a laptop which costs around 40k and so I have to pay 30% of (40-25)k as excise. When I tried to argue that I did not buy it and there was no commercial value as the device is a prototype and not sold in the market, he said "Jiski laathi uski bhains" and demanded 1500 bribe if I didn't want to pay the duty of Rs4.5k.
Being alone at 1AM in the night and a difference of 3k, I decided to pay the bribe. What surprised me the most was how bluntly he used a hindi idiom in the situation.