- Bribe Fighter
- 13 years ago
- 1656 views
Home work saves me
I was traveling from Israel to Chennai via Mumbai (as my port of entry) after completing my higher studies. Before leaving Israel, I visited the calcutta customs webpage to get educated about my duty allowance. I printed out the rules and kept them in my back pack along with the receipts of electronic items that I had bought during my long stay at Israel. Upon landing in Mumbai, the airline official need to talk to me to get my mailing address to ship an electric shaver that was withheld for a security check at Israel. Due to this I was the last person to leave the baggage claim area. Upon passing through Customs, I was asked to place my baggage on the X-********** scanner. I followed their instructions. The customs personnel found that I had a camcorder and a SLR camera in my baggage and said that I had stuff that were not covered under the duty free allowance and i would have to be charged with duty. I explained him that I was not a regular tourist but a student who was returning home with a one way ticket after completion of studies. He mentioned that i could avoid the duty if I paid him a bribe of $50. I told him that I had no objections to pay the duty. He said that it would take atleast a couple of hours to evaluate the entire baggage and calculate the duty. I told him that I was not in a hurry and I could wait. At that moment i remembered about the rules and receipts in my backpack. I produced them to him and explained to him that I obtained these from customs website and I have followed those instructions. He went to discuss with his colleague, returned to me and said that he was going to do a "favor" to me by letting me go now.