Arrests widen Indian customs facilitation payment scandal

ARRESTS by India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of 10 customs men, implicated in a bribery network involving an Ahmedbad forwarder, has now provided evidence implicating higher officials, reports the Indian Express.


"Investigations are leading us to top officials. We are scrutinising documents seized from the arrested officials that have given us leads on some top officers in the Customs House," a CBI officer supervising the case said.


"The bribes facilitated clearance of imports, duty refund. In many cases, the importers were unaware that the agents were charging them extra," he said.


The network extended to Mundra and Surat, he said. "In Ahmedabad, the network ran out of the Air Cargo Complex. The bribes here used to be 1.52 per cent of refund claims on paid duty.


"The money was collected by private agents, who passed it back to the customs officers. In Mundra, customs officers would charge INR300 (US$6.71) to INR500 to clear each container. More than 100,000 containers a month come through Mundra.


"In Surat, agents from the freight forwarder company would charge 0.5 per cent of the total export bills from exporters and pass back the bribe customs officials. Customs Inspector Davinder Chaudhary was the point man here," the source told the Indian Express.


According to CBI sources, the freight forwarder company even used to maintain records of the bribe collected and distributed and show them as "income" from some other transactions.


Earlier this month, the CBI had swooped at customs offices across the state and arrested 10 of its officials. CBI claimed it has seized incriminating documents, besides bundles of cash.
(Source:http://www.schednet.com)