Planning to go to India, great news yaar. Shopping ho gayi? Kya Kya Khareeda? Remember to have a twenty dollar bill with you to bribe the Customs officer or just buy him a black label bottle yaar, chod dega. Why don't you tell him my Uncle's name, he is also a customs officer. Familiar? I heard these numerous times from many of my well wishers and friends.
One of my friends very wisely was carrying only a ten dollar bill. His idea was to express his inability to bribe the customs officer as he didn't have enough funds. The customs officer smiled viciously and took him to the nearby duty free store and got himself a black label scotch whisky bottle. My poor friend silently obliged.
It is so embarrassing that it is the first thing we do after reaching our home land. What a pity. It has come to the stage where this has become a custom to bribe the customs officer. They expect it and we oblige. You can see our parents waiting and waving just a few meters away from us, but we need to cross this slimy, corrupt barrier first to reach them. I just hate it.
Before blaming the customs officer lets blame ourselves first. How many of us know how much we are allowed to carry home? Did you even try to find that out? We just are sure the customs officer will let us through even if we smuggle a few laptops and few ipods.
Please research on the Indian Customs baggage rules. Their website very very sadly has rules as per 1998. According to another popular website, the maximum limit for you to carry home and leave it there is approximately $584. Remember never to exceed the limit. If possible carry receipts of your purchase, that proves you are within limits. If you exceed limits, be ready to pay your taxes. If the customs officer demands a bribe, please fight them, not with blows or cursing but with honor and confidence. Put your voice or video equipped cell phones to use and record the conversation with the customs officer. Forward it to TV9 or eenadu. Be a sleuth. Lend your hand in cleaning the system. A few news relays and hopefully a few suspensions shall at the least decrease the number of times your wallet is shaved by the customs officer.
Friends we should change first before we ask for a change in the system or society. We make the system and we break it too.
Jai Hind
2 comments:
The idea of recording is nice, bro! BTW, I always checked this for baggage rules, which also now points to the same website you wrote - you only saw the "1998" in the heading and not the note at the very bottom of the page. :-) BTW, the "limit" is never given in USD, sir, but is given in the country's native currency, INR in our case. The limit is at Rs.25,000/- (which is $584 @ 42.8 conversion rate).
Enough nitpicking, you're doing a good job. Continue this. I have just read another blog in the morning, which also talks about customs and stuff in a very similar way! Bribing at Customs and smoking in Indian airports had been my pet peeves for a long time! Thanks for attacking them.
well..looks like you havent posted in a while.
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