Our shipping landed in India coast at Khidirpur, Kolkata around 2nd September 2012. We had sent them on June 24th 2012 from USA, so the time it takes for shipping is not very efficient. I got a call from someone here, who said that they will charge us some amount for handling our stuff from SriLanka to here. However, we were told the shipping money we paid in US covers coast to coast transportation. In any case, there seem to be some grey area somewhere we could not understand. Well, after talking with her, she said their price will be maximum 10,000 INR. When I told her that we had only a small pellet, she said the cost will be way below that. Then she tells us that we have to hire a clearing agent and gives us address of one such person. On contacting that person, he quoted some price, that will be 2-3 times the cost of my entire shipping goods. We were contemplating if we could do it ourselves without an agent. I am writing this article for people who are in the same boat as we are. If you are NOT willing to pay bribe and want to get your things out quickly, then PLEASE DON'T HIRE CLEARING AGENTS.
We did hire a clearing agent who just talked us into believing that he the best one out there and threw around his weight saying that he does handle big stuff. His charge was 6500 INR, but he added everybody's cost and charged us 25000 INR. This included the cost of transportation from Srilanka. This man said the cost is 11500 contrary to what we were told in the beginning. From the very beginning, I did not believe anything he said. But he convinced us that everything is receipted, so we breathed little easy. The next thing he does is asks around 5000 INR saying that it is speed money. If we don't give this amount our goods will be delayed further. When probed into it, he said they have to pay something to the custom officials in order to get the job done. When we asked them if this was bribe money, he carefully avoided that word. So, in other words, this money seemed perfectly legal to him (or he wanted us into believing that). When we said we are not going to pay a single penny beyond the receipted money, he said fine. Then he sends one of his fellows to accompany us to the customs office. I found the customs people are much better than the clearing agent people. Clearing agent people want to make the process appear very complicated where as it is not. They also have a component, where they want to justify their existence and somewhere during this procedure, they introduce the bribe mechanism. I have now strong reasons to believe that they are only rotten apples in the whole system. If you want to really go to customs house, go there and meet the PRO and talk with them to find the procedure. You may get things done faster than going through an agent. They not only delay you, but also create a practise of bribery for their own benefit. So the practise of hiring a clearing agent should be ABOLISHED completely. There may be some complicated going around, but I think you can do it yourself by asking people around. For our stuff, we did everything including the valuation, listing by yourself. After the customs are paid, the next thing is to go to the port and get our stuff. Here again the clearing agents person caused great deal of trouble. We reached there by 11 AM and he kept on going back and forth without telling us what is happening or why we are waiting. We met the customs commissioner, and that guy was a very nice person. Our agent kept on telling us for 2 hours that our things are getting taken out from the container. At around 2 PM when we asked the status, he said nothing has started. To that, we got very upset and started physically moving towards our goods. Then there were labors, they came running and started emptying the container. Our small pallet was there in one corner of the container. Finally, that was removed. Then, we called the customs official and he wanted to just look at the TV in our presence. He saw and was convinced that the pricing was right. Then no other question was asked. Finally, we were ready to get our stuff. But in any case, since we were processing our goods through the clearing agent we could not take it by ourselves. He had taken the charges for delivering at our house at a very high price. Finally at around 11th midnight got our stuff home.
The DOs for taking your stuff if you have shipped them will be:
1. Talk with the local handling people.
2. Go to the customs office and talk with their PRO.
3. Find out the steps and procedures.
4. Take your address proof (electricity bill etc) with you.
5. If your passport address is different from your present address, then you have to make an affidavit in that effect. So, get that done.
6. Keep few of your identity proof with you handy.
7. Always carry your passport.
8. If you are in Kolkata start at 11 AM. People go for lunch from 2-4 PM, so don't expect anything to be done during that time.
9. Go personally to all the counters. They are nice people. When you go with an agent or the agent goes alone, they expect bribe( I am not sure if that is paid to the customs or the agent swallows it)
10. The agent wants your stuff to be in the port for a long time, so that he can take the rent for that. So, never encourage that.
11. Go to the port by yourself and get your goods cleared.
If in this process you ended up paying some extra money to the labors, then so be it, at least you are fighting against an un-necessary step and un-necessary people. NEVER EVER HIRE A CUSTOMS CLEARING AGENT. You can ask me specific questions regarding this.
We did hire a clearing agent who just talked us into believing that he the best one out there and threw around his weight saying that he does handle big stuff. His charge was 6500 INR, but he added everybody's cost and charged us 25000 INR. This included the cost of transportation from Srilanka. This man said the cost is 11500 contrary to what we were told in the beginning. From the very beginning, I did not believe anything he said. But he convinced us that everything is receipted, so we breathed little easy. The next thing he does is asks around 5000 INR saying that it is speed money. If we don't give this amount our goods will be delayed further. When probed into it, he said they have to pay something to the custom officials in order to get the job done. When we asked them if this was bribe money, he carefully avoided that word. So, in other words, this money seemed perfectly legal to him (or he wanted us into believing that). When we said we are not going to pay a single penny beyond the receipted money, he said fine. Then he sends one of his fellows to accompany us to the customs office. I found the customs people are much better than the clearing agent people. Clearing agent people want to make the process appear very complicated where as it is not. They also have a component, where they want to justify their existence and somewhere during this procedure, they introduce the bribe mechanism. I have now strong reasons to believe that they are only rotten apples in the whole system. If you want to really go to customs house, go there and meet the PRO and talk with them to find the procedure. You may get things done faster than going through an agent. They not only delay you, but also create a practise of bribery for their own benefit. So the practise of hiring a clearing agent should be ABOLISHED completely. There may be some complicated going around, but I think you can do it yourself by asking people around. For our stuff, we did everything including the valuation, listing by yourself. After the customs are paid, the next thing is to go to the port and get our stuff. Here again the clearing agents person caused great deal of trouble. We reached there by 11 AM and he kept on going back and forth without telling us what is happening or why we are waiting. We met the customs commissioner, and that guy was a very nice person. Our agent kept on telling us for 2 hours that our things are getting taken out from the container. At around 2 PM when we asked the status, he said nothing has started. To that, we got very upset and started physically moving towards our goods. Then there were labors, they came running and started emptying the container. Our small pallet was there in one corner of the container. Finally, that was removed. Then, we called the customs official and he wanted to just look at the TV in our presence. He saw and was convinced that the pricing was right. Then no other question was asked. Finally, we were ready to get our stuff. But in any case, since we were processing our goods through the clearing agent we could not take it by ourselves. He had taken the charges for delivering at our house at a very high price. Finally at around 11th midnight got our stuff home.
The DOs for taking your stuff if you have shipped them will be:
1. Talk with the local handling people.
2. Go to the customs office and talk with their PRO.
3. Find out the steps and procedures.
4. Take your address proof (electricity bill etc) with you.
5. If your passport address is different from your present address, then you have to make an affidavit in that effect. So, get that done.
6. Keep few of your identity proof with you handy.
7. Always carry your passport.
8. If you are in Kolkata start at 11 AM. People go for lunch from 2-4 PM, so don't expect anything to be done during that time.
9. Go personally to all the counters. They are nice people. When you go with an agent or the agent goes alone, they expect bribe( I am not sure if that is paid to the customs or the agent swallows it)
10. The agent wants your stuff to be in the port for a long time, so that he can take the rent for that. So, never encourage that.
11. Go to the port by yourself and get your goods cleared.
If in this process you ended up paying some extra money to the labors, then so be it, at least you are fighting against an un-necessary step and un-necessary people. NEVER EVER HIRE A CUSTOMS CLEARING AGENT. You can ask me specific questions regarding this.
3 comments:
Nice blog, thanks for sharing. It will help to find a clearing agent.
Thanks for visiting the blog site!
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