• I Paid A Bribe
• 14 years ago
• 312 views

Bribing to let Apple Macpro

• Customs, Excise and Service Tax
• Customs Check and Clearance
• Paid INR 10,000

All the choices of abuses were on my tip of my tounge, however restricted myself and handed over 10k to a mumbai police havaldar. The customs officer segregated me aside as I was carrying two laptops. One official and the other was a Apple Mac pro.

The customs officers were playing good cop - bad cop game with me. One of them would tell me he is trying to help me and the other was opening all my luggage and picking up everything he could lay his hands on. They created a inventory of my belongings and estimated the price which was best known to them. Calculated a 36 % tax and another amount as penalty.

When I told them that I was not carrying any Indian currency they very efficiently directed me to a ATM. After 18 hr flight and an hour to collect luggage I had to face the custom officials for two hours to justify my own luggage. Ultimately they agreed to 10k and handed my passport to the havaldar who took me to a dingy room and gave my passport in exchange to the bribe.

After a little bit of introspection I feel it is the system which given the Customs official the upper hand. The law states that an individual can bring in belongings worth Rs 25,000 from a foriegn country and can walk through without declaring at the customs. This law is taken in essence and the pupose is not understood. The law discourages bringing in large quantities of goods which can be used further with a business motive. To thwart harrasement from customs this law needs to be upgraded with time. Considering the inflation and high cost of living the limit of Rs 25,000 should either be increased or the law should have a annexure stating the objective behind procuring a goods from a froriegn country. So if an individual is procuring any goods for his personal consumption it should not be under the customs scanner.

Please suggest and correct me if I am wrong.