• I Paid A Bribe
  • 10 years ago
  • 712 views

We were traveling to India from the US with our dog. Indian customs…

Reported on April 19, 2014 from Bangalore , Karnataka  ι Report #40586

We were traveling to India from the US with our dog. Indian customs requires us to get a "No Objection Certificate" to authorize the import of a dog. To obtain this certificate, we have to provide an original health certificate by a state-licensed vet in the US and get it notarized less than 10 days from the date of departure. There is additional documentation required - all of which we confirmed from the Customs website as well as by communicating directly with the office of the Animal Control Officer. My mother-in-law, who resides in Bangalore, took all the required documents and headed over to the Customs office at the new airport.

She was made to wait for four hours (although she was present at the appointed time). After the officer inspected all the documents and everything checked out, she said that she charges Rs. 5000 to issue an NOC. My mother-in-law was tired and frustrated by the process and given the immediacy of the requirement (less than two days to our departure date, since it involved sending original docs from the US via courier), she decided to pay the bribe.

After receiving a soft-copy of the certificate and completing the journey, the Customs officers in the airport notified us of revisions to the import laws that effectively disallowed bringing pets on vacations (to discourage people from bringing pedigree animals and selling them locally for a nice profit). The officers said they would make an exception since we had an NOC, but only if we provided the original document (which we didn't have in our possession since it was issued only 2 days prior to our travel). They suggested that we could work out a deal, but I declined, took a cab home, brought the original document to the airport and got my dog cleared. It was a quite cumbersome to do it, but it had its upside - I did not have to pay another bribe.

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