‘Assessing officer demands bribe worth 7 litres’: Importer exposes Chennai Customs corruption, releases audio recordings with officer

A Chennai-based importer’s tweet, which revealed that a bribe of Rs 7 lakh was demanded by customs officials, sparked widespread outrage online. Prawin Ganeshan took to X (formerly Twitter) to share his ordeal, revealing how his shipment from China remained stuck for over 72 hours due to a demand for bribes that was allegedly facilitated by a customer named Sridhar.

“The valuation officer is demanding a bribe of 7 litres for my shipment through his bribe collection agent Sridhar, CHA @ Chennai. Anonymous appraisal, yet they have agents demanding bribe like this from importers,” Ganeshan wrote, referring to Chennai Customs, Central Board of Excise and Customs. Indirect (CBIC), and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Ganeshan explained that this was the first time he imported products from China. He claimed that after an inquiry regarding the last three Bills of Entry (BOE) for similar goods, the customs agent demanded a bribe worth two to three times the value of the consignment, citing the Scheme Import Goods (SiiB) as the reason.

Chennai Customs responded and asked Ganeshan to provide details of his consignment for further investigation. Ganeshan later confirmed that he had shared the entry bill number and added, “I have audio recordings of the CHA and the assessing officer agent demanding ruthless 7 lakh to settle the bill.”

In a separate post, he shared a video with the audio recording with the customs employee. He wrote: “I am not making baseless allegations without proof. This person Sridhar is known in the customs department as an agent to collect bribe on behalf of an officer sitting in Delhi. The officer wants to deal through him only and offered at least 7 lakhs for my consignment.”

The post went viral, garnering more than 3.4 thousand views and 45,000 likes, and many users shared their experiences with corruption in customs procedures.

One user commented: “Kudos to you for naming and shaming them. Many companies list such bribes as “facilitation fees” and rarely talk about them.” “Even with frequent transfers, the rot continues,” wrote another. “Officers claim that senior officials demand these bribes,” another wrote.

Others narrated similar incidents, with one user stating that they had to pay Rs 5,000 instead of 500 to activate their ICEGATE ID, while another reported paying bribes to clear chemicals for export despite submitting proper documents.