- I Paid A Bribe
- 10 years ago
- 3254 views
I was recently on an international flight from Amsterdam to New…
I was recently on an international flight from Amsterdam to New Delhi (Flight # KL 0871 that landed on Jan 1, 2014) with a connection to Chennai. I was stopped at customs at random to verify the contents of my carry on baggage. Firstly I noticed that the staff who were screening bags chose to pick travelers at random from the line of people exiting the airport and my guess is that they targeted people who "looked to be affable/were wearing different clothes". I can't put it more plainly in saying that the Indian airport staff were highly discriminatory and even possibly racist in doing this act which should be punishable!
So I was stopped at the baggage screening area and was asked to open my bag. I was carrying two used laptops, a few cheap (under 2000 INR each) watches, an old iPod and a used digital camera. I was asked for a bill of sale for all of the items to which I said that I don't have it since most of them were used personal items. This did not sit well with them and they decided to estimate the value of the items with their best knowledge of prices (which is highly absurd given the prices of things can change across different countries). I was made to wait at the customs section for more than an hour and a half where I was constantly abused by the staff for failing to comply with their regulations. To this point I asked them for written rules of Indian customs that state that I am violating monetary limits on duty items. They arrogantly commented that since I have all these modern devices on me, I should go find it in their website: firstly I have all rights to ask for documentation from a government agent. Secondly I am an international passenger at an airport with no access to local mobile data networks or WiFi to go to the internet. Meanwhile they estimate the net worth of all my electronics and came up with a grand total of 10,000 INR which is the 36.05% duty on items over the allowable monetary value of import items (The CBEC website has a PDF: http://www.cbec.gov.in/trvler-guide_ason22may2013.pdf which is the most ambiguous piece of official document I have ever read in my entire life!). I refused to honor their fee charge and decide to reason out the fact that
A. The value of all items put together does not exceed the allowable 35,000 INR (or atleast there is no proof stating as such)
B. I will not pay for something that had no valid written rule backing the claim and
C. I was being abused at random based on no valid reason to have been picked out from among hundreds of exiting passengers through customs checks.
The only way out of this situation was to miss my connection flight, sit and argue and file a complaint (which again had no clear method) or to pay a bribe to get out of the mess. I had already been in travel for 25+ hours and was physically exhausted to deal with this in any legal straight channel (in which I had no belief whatsoever at this point). I ended up paying out a hefty bribe of 4000 INR to the guy in a suit who looked like my dad but was a crook in broad daylight from his actions. I tried asking for their names but they refused to give me any details and even stared down at me for having asked for that. I didn't find a single person with a name tag or an ID badge on them which I found was very inappropriate.
I hope this experience of mine helps other travelers to exercise caution at the New Delhi airport and possibly be better armed with customs rules and be more aggressive than I in dealing with these corrupt officials who sadly, are the first interface for a homesick passenger coming into the country.