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

Carrying alcohol

• Customs, Excise and Service Tax
• Customs Check and Clearance
• Paid INR 2,000

We were returning to Mumbai from Thailand after a holiday. We were a family of four. We bought 6 bottles of alcohol at bangkok airport duty free. The duty free invoiced all the bootles together under one passenger's name. When we passed through mumbai customs, the customs officer Mr. Sushil Kumar noticed the bottles and asked me for the invoice. Not expecting any trouble as we were carrying within the permitted limit, I handed over the invoice. This is when the officer informed that we will have to pay duty on 4 bottles as they were all invoiced to one passenger. If they had been invoiced 2 bottles per passenger, then there would not be an issue. We tried to argue the logicallity of the rule but to no avail. We were being asked to pay some ridiculous amount of duty which was more than the price of the bottle. So we bribed this officer with one bottle of black label so that we could take the others without paying any duty. The bribe was collected in a small room near the customs check by a constable.