Originally Posted by Savage25
Flew in to BOM on friday and customs asked me to open my bags because I had a ball of Edam cheese in my luggage and they couldn't figure out what it was on the X-ray machine. They didn't give my laptop a second glance but hassled me on my iPod and QC2 headphones for about 10 minutes, asking me to pay duty on them. I was firm but polite and I had the printouts of the following pages from the Customs website with me, so they finally gave in and let me go. (Think they were fishing for a bribe?)
http://www.cbec.gov.in/cae/customs/i...s/tourists.htm
http://www.cbec.gov.in/cae/customs/i...al_effects.htm
As I was closing my bag, one of the officers standing next to me mentioned that when I was departing BOM, I should obtain an "Export Certificate" for the iPod and headphones from the Customs officials there, in order to avoid more hassles when bringing them into the country again. Before I could get any details from him, he ran off after a guy with a TV set going to the green channel.
Has anyone gotten this "Export Certificate" and does it work when coming into the country again? I assume one would get it at the desk after Departure immigration where there's a couple of Customs guys sitting?
There are a lot of crooks working at, for and with Bombay Customs. It's a quite insulting reflection on the Govt. of India that they cannot get their act together and allow such criminal activity to be permitted at one of India's main gateways.