“Babus, stealing cigarettes and chocolate …”: How a imported complaint exploded in the controversy of corruption

Social media is full of stories on how to push entrepreneurs to push the Customs Department thousands and Lakhs from Ru ruler to release their goods. The Ministry of Finance’s order to investigate the bribery allegations provided by Wintrack Inc, based in Chenna Customs, led to many skeletons of tanks.

After the founder of Wintrack, Prawin Ganeshan, spoke about the demands of bribery he faced from the customs department, many other entrepreneurs took social media to share their grievances.

Among the many common cases online, one of the businessmen said he had to pay 47,000 rupees to issue his shipment, while another talked about a book, the author signed by the recipient, who was not released because they claimed that there was an inconsistency in the name of the recipient. Another user from X said he had to pay 11,000 rupees to issue a $ 140 charge (more than 12,000 rupees).

Anil Kumar, the creator of social media content as “AnilshipSailor”, who shares videos and publications about his life and his trading commercial seas, said that no one wants to come to India with ships. He said that the port officers are relying on the ship’s saving stores, and they robbed bags, bags of coffee, chicken, biscuits and anything they can land on. He said they would also take bags of alcohol, cold and cigarettes. Kumar said that permanent orders remain that all the port officials demand, the crew must hand them over for fear of revenge. He said they are not only the Indian ships they face, but perhaps all foreign ships as well.

Customs

According to the ministry, a senior officer from the Ministry of Revenue was discharged for a detailed realistic investigation. The founder of Wintrack, Prawin Ganeshan, announced that X will close import export operations in India as of October 1, due to the harassment that customs officials in Chenyy. He said that his company faced revenge after exposing the demands of bribery by the Ministry of Customs.

Chennai Customs said that Wintrack has “a fixed pattern of providing irrevocable allegations of corruption and bribery” on social media, which is then deleted after the administration. He said that the company’s shipment was found that is not classified and includes USB charging cables with compact batteries that require the expanded product responsibility certificate (EPR) under the rules of managing batteries, 2022. No bribes have been requested and all procedures were fully followed.

For this claim, Ganishan replied that he personally met an officer to transfer his complaint about the demands of bribery. He said: “The shipment was released at a total of 2,10,000 rupees of $ 2,993.

Ganishan, in reference to the customs department, asked how someone was supposed to sell a massager without a shipping cable. He said: “The compliance of EPR and LMPC was requested manually for the first time, causing delay and effects. The law has gaps, and the officers exploited it according to their discretion.”