The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, specifically the Chennai Customs division, is in the eye of a storm over allegations of bribery levelled against it by Wintrack Inc, an import-export firm, whose founder accused the officials of demanding bribes in exchange for clearing shipments. The war of words between the company’s founder and Customs officials escalated via social media over the weekend after the company announced it was ceasing its India operations over the bribe demands and lead to an outpouring of stories from hundreds of middle class Indians who have shared stories of horror in dealing with Indian Customs officials who are all too eager to raise petty discrepancies to keep goods worth crores of rupees waiting in Customs’ godowns often until bribes are paid.
While the Department initially claimed that it was the importer who was guilty of misdeclaration and misclassification, as the uproar has grown, the Finance Ministry was forced to intervene and order a senior Department of Revenue officer to conduct a “fair, transparent, and fact-based inquiry into the allegations raised.” But, as those dealing with the matter will have realised by now, this isn’t just the case of Wintrack Inc or of this particular case or even just about the Customs officials.
Paying bribes to get work done has become a norm in the current day. Even services that you are perfectly entitled to and approvals that should be given and processed if your documents are in order are either delayed or rejected on minor, often imaginary objections, just so that you should pay a bribe. This isn’t about kickbacks or commissions that we are talking about. This is about the harassment of ordinary taxpaying citizens who have to pay bribes to simply exist with dignity.
The outpouring of horror stories about Customs officials shows that it is not just a one-off case, but everyone, especially individuals who are buying stuff from abroad, is presented with inflated customs duties, after which an offer is made to reduce the duty by classifying the imported good as something for which a lower duty can be applied.
It is not without reason that, in Wintrack’s case, if the bribes had been paid as demanded, the shipment would have been promptly released, irrespective of whether it was being ‘misclassified’ or not. Which brings us to the story of India, and the current government, that rose to power specifically on the back of the anti-corruption movement championed by Anna Hazare -- a movement that has achieved nothing except prop the BJP and AAP into positions of power, who then rewarded the leaders of the movement with posts in government. In hindsight, it appears that the leaders of the movement cared less about defeating corruption and more about becoming its beneficiaries by displacing the existing beneficiaries.
Corruption in India today is at an all-time high, and as investor and businessman Mohandas Pai said, companies today simply incorporate this as the cost of doing business in India. Corruption never really went away; it only got worse.
The middle-class anger is now building up once again, and the day is not far when a simple protest can turn into a mass movement. All it took was one Wintrack Inc. to expose the huge rot that Indian bureaucracy and enforcement agencies are stewing in. Let the government not wait for more such sparks to light up the tinderbox that is the anger of India’s middle class.
