I feel "dirty" - why and how bribes work in Bangalore
Apparently you are allowed only one laptop when you clear customs in India. So they scan every bag and mark the ones with a laptop with an X in red. I was duly asked to "step aside" to be inspected. There was a customs officer T.P. Ullas who asked me why I have two laptops. I said one was an old (5 years) one, which has my backup and another was the laptop I used. He quickly pointed me to a not so official cartoon that stated "only one laptop per person".
"Okay" I said what now? I can "declare it and put it in my passport" (they make an entry in your passport) so I have to take it back when I return.
"No" replied T.P. Ullas, "what else do you have?".
"Clothes, books, not much" I said.
Ullas: "Well you have to pay the duty".
Me: "But I am taking these things back".
Ullas: "That's not the rule".
Me: "What is the rule then?". annoyed.
At this point I was tired, bored and really wanting to get this over with. I looked around and there were 3 others going through the same predicament.
"Okay, what's the duty" I ask.
Ullas: "Show me the receipt of original purchase".
Me: "I dont have it, I dont carry it around".
Ullas: "Okay then wait here. I'll ask around".
He goes and asks another guy and a third guy and they quickly start to talk about IPL Cricket.
I am totally annoyed at this point. So I get in front of them and confront him with " I want to move quick, tell me the duty and I'll pay it".
Again he replies "I need the receipt. We cant do anything without the receipt".
Me: "I bought it for about $1000. That's the base price"
He goes inside to a room to bring a book with some numbers apparently that indicate duty prices. He says "I cant take your word for it, so it has to be the maximum".
Resigning to the fate, I wanted him to get this over with. He then wanted to open all the boxes and assess everything from my Blackberry and iPhone - "Why do you carry 2 phones?" was another question, to my IPod, Kindle and finally came up with a ridiculous "I think the maximum estimate is Rs. 120,000" or about $3000. (Not sure even if the sum total of all my items would amount to that).
"You can do this quick or you can do it by the book" he says then.
I did not quite want to understand it. I knew he was asking to be paid and since I did not have any local currency I wanted to pay by check for the duty. He wont hear of check.
He pulls me into a smaller room and takes my passport and says "Just go outside to the ATM machine and bring me Rs. 3000 (about $90) and I'll take care of it".
Given the endless catch 22 of receipts and duties, I just stepped out, went to the ATM, withdrew $100, came back. He took me back to the room inside, satisfied with the Rs. 3000, gave my passport back.
Awful. Dont know why I had do give in and not sure why I had to pay him. Still trying to cleanse. It was the difference between $100 or $3000.
What would you do? Why? How do I get this better next time?
Not much really. It's easier to pay but not necessarily better.
Or you could ask them to endorse it in your passport/get a certificate for it that you can show them when you leave.
But at 2 AM, it's probably easier to do it the dirty way.
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**Sigh** I know exactly how you feel. its being caught between the "I know I shouldnt " and "I want the hell out of here ". Did the others pay as well ? Was there a possibility of insisting it be endorsed on your passport without the reciept ? I am positive regs just require the model number etc to be endorsed rather than sight a reciept . Could you have insisted on speaking to the Office on Duty ( even tho they are all in cahoots)? Why dont you write a letter to the editor in the most prominent local newspaper - is that the Hindu.
This is where progress falters in the face of corruption and break down of the judiciary or quasi judiciary.
It saddens me - and I know how you feel.
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Of interest, Mukund, there is a discussion of your predicament on FriendFeed:
http://friendfeed.com/e/a2ac41aa-bad1-1272-fb1b-445b3b2f4a39
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You should know the rules. Unfortunately in these situations (in India) there isn't a higher authority you could seek help from (at that moment).
What you said about declaring it in the passport would have worked. You should have just stuck on to - I am not going to pay for it. Of course it could have taken 15min or more depending on your body language. If they got the feeling that you weren't going to pony up the money, they would have let you go.
In the past I had an encounter (10 years ago) where the customs official wanted Rs500/cd. And I had a 100pack spindle of CDRs in my bag
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@Viki: not sure of the others. I asked to be endorsed, but he was insistent that I have to pay duty and get endorsement.
@louis: Yes I commented there. Thanks!
@met: I agree 100% that I was at fault also. Not taking away from the fact that I helped in the process, but I am learning as I go - how to stick to my rules and just hang in there.
@gautam that's exactly what I did - still feel awful.
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Hello Mukund, I work in Bangalore Mirror and we have a daily section where we carry blogs on Bangalore or blogs by Bangaloreans. I wanted to know if I could use this post for 'Blog Talk' section? Pls do let me know if you are okay with it.. my email id is nt[dot]balanarayan[at]gmail[dot]com
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Balu I dropped you a note. No problem, go ahead and keep in touch. Good luck
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Or you could avoid this altogether - just rub the cross off your bag BEFORE you get to customs... Is that legal? There's no-one telling you NOT to and it's your bag. It's probably more legal than the situation you found yourself in. Good luck next time!!!
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Julie
I did not think of crossing it out since I did not know why there were there in the first place.
Second, I could not take them out even after I went home, so I gather its some sort of ink that goes after multiple tries.
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Thanks for blogging about this, Mukund.
I was about to ask my uncle to get me a brand new 20 inch iMac.
Will he be allowed to get it without paying any custom duty?
Or is the provision strictly for laptops only?
Thanks again!
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Go-wind
I am not sure of the rules, I suspect you can get one PC or Laptop, but I am not the expert on this. Recommend you ask the experts like your travel agent if you have one. Thanks.
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Thanks for posting this blog Mukund. I was also planning to carry both my business & personal laptop to Bangalore. Having second thoughts now.
Also had a packed both the laptops in your checked in baggage or were you carrying them as carry-on? Also in Bangalore airport do they screen/x-ray the carry on baggage as well on arrival??
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Nitin
I had checked one bag in (which had one laptop) and had the other laptop in my carry-on. I would recommend you hand carry both laptops. They do screen hand baggage, but I have heard consistently from local Bangalore folks that if you do carry-on 2 laptops more likely than not they will ignore it.
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