Customs clearing agents in India - Do you really need them?

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.

The Hindu : Opinion / Open Page : The God within

The Hindu : Opinion / Open Page : The God within

Process of Customs Clearance In case you are shipping your stuff from overseas

Yesterday, on 7th September, I spent my entire day at Delhousie (A place where most of the official buildings in Kolkata is housed). Ask why? We were told that our cargo has landed in Kolkata (That was about 2 weeks back, and we were summoned just now by our customs clearing agent - that is how it works here) In my last post here, I have written about how we shipped our stuff.

Few things you need to know when you are trying to ship your items:

1. The shipping cost you pay in US is not all you have to pay eventually. In our case, it was written that the local clearing and handling cost has to be taken care of by the client. That means, there will be about $300 you have to cough of to pay for the transportation of your goods from international water to your destination. It sounds ridiculous and the jobs sound to be overlapping, but that is how it works.
2. We were introduced to a new terminology called as a "clearing agent". I was wondering what is a clearing agent was. Came to know that they are the ones that actually interfaces between you and the customs officials. Here are my ramblings about a clearing agent:

So, what does a clearing agent do? All will convince you that without a clearing agent you could not get your stuff from customs. We were also convinced by this trap. We went to the clearing agents office at 10 AM and he had one 2 page form filled out (of course with our feedback) and there were multiple copies of the declaration of goods paper with the prices (and that document was prepared by me!!) and a paper saying that we authorize the clearing agent to release the items on our behalf from the dock. I was told that there are 2 ways to deal with customs officials.
1. Pay and get it done quick,
2.don't pay and get delayed.
We opted for the later. So, the clearing agents employee first takes us to the PRO(public Relations Officer) in customs office. They were nice and looked into our declarations and had few questions about the pricing. We convinced them and they signed. Then the employee takes us to another place and comes back and whispers into our ears that they are asking money. We straight said NO to that. Then the waiting began. There was a clerk sitting putting up a reluctant face; he pulls out some large tattered registers and looks at our price declaration intently. That is where actually they pull people, negotiate for money. He began circling the items saying that these are customs chargeable. We came prepared with a printout of the rules and regulations and showed it to him saying that what he says are customs chargeable are actually not. He putting up a long face had to oblige. Then the paper went from that person to another person across the hall. He also asked for money, we refused. We failed to understand what they were actually doing with the paper other than pulling a huge note book and scibbling all of those again and agian and wasting our time. Then we were told the papers went to someone else who will check the pricing (note here, the same thing has been done 3 times already). There we were delayed for 1 hour more. Then the employee from clearing agents office took us to another place (in another building). That guy again asked for all passports, present future past addresses and was looking for every avenue to pull us, so that he could make some money. My current passport has US address, because that is where it was issued in 2005. He had problems with that. Then I had to explain the reason behind it. We had to show our present address with proof. Then he said, go and make an affidavit. I was failing to understand why this step is needed. I am the person declaring with proof that, this is my present address, with my proof of identity, how a third party who did not know me or has got anything to do with my address can certify that and how that certificate becomes more authentic then my own declaration!! Well, this is how our system is designed. So, we went downstairs. There were brokers, who took 3 times more money than the actual cost of stamp paper, typing and signing. So, in other words you always end up paying to a middleman because you don't know where to run (Can we please eliminate these useless steps!!). Finally, we took the whole thing up to the person who asked for it. There we found the seat was empty. Our waiting began (Probably here money would have shortened our waiting time). We waited patiently and after 2 hours another guy taking pity on our situation asked for our papers. He was carefully looking at everything, so that he can find flaws and ask for money. We kept no loop holes, carried everything with us. Then he did something (I am not sure what he did - probably wrote something and signed on the paper). Then those papers were carried to another person sitting across the hall. He also asked money, we resisted and he kept the paper on his table for half an hour before releasing them. Honestly, I am not sure what he was doing with them either. Then our agent told us that we have to go to another building. We obliged and followed him. There he made us wait outside for 1 hour. Then the man inside that room called us and started calculating the customs duty payable on those. Then our agent took us back to the office we started from. At this step, we are suppose to pay the customs duty. The man who is supposed to take the money for duty payment asked money. We refused. Angrily, he left and said it is already 4.30 PM and they can't take cash now. We fought saying that there is still time. In any case, he finally took the duty amount and returned us the receipt. It took him one hour for this job. Then finally at 5.30 PM, the first set of clerks were to write down something in their thick book and this took about 30 minutes to complete. It was almost 6 PM and finally we made full circle by returning to the PRO's office (where we started of that day). So, in all I would say that, few signatures, a simple calculation, cash payment which should not have taken more than 30 minutes took us 6 hours!! Hiring a clearing agent actually did not help. Other than guiding us from one place to another, he actually did not do anything. He instead was coaxing us to pay the bribe amount. We had a great sense of achievement that we could get our job done without paying a single penny extra!!

So, if you are shipping your things be aware that, you could actually do everything yourself, just ask the PRO how to proceed and your job may be done faster than going through a clearing agent.

Sixth weekend in Kolkata

Today we mark our sixth weekend past landing Kolkata. Things have certainly cooled down a lot. We did NOT have to get up get ready and go somewhere to complete some job. Although we still don't have a gas connection and managing to cook in 2 induction heaters (see what is an induction heater here) quite efficiently. Pramod is even taking a nap right now because we discovered that most of the shops remain closed during after noon hours in Kolkata.In any case, it just feels good that we are self sufficient now after working through it for almost 6 weeks now. We have so far got some utensils for induction cooking, managed to get good drinking water delivered, a maid clean our house every day morning, a milk man deliver milk, a paper wallah for news papers, an istriwallh (man who irons the cloths) press our clothes, electrician, plumber to take care of daily complaints, watchmen for miscellaneous jobs.

For house, we have either already got the furniture or ordered the furniture that are at various stages of delivery. Here, the problem with furniture is, you have to go and order it one day and they will deliver it atleast after 15 days. But the assembly will take place some other time. So, it takes 3 sessions minimum to get a furniture to your home. It is another thing if your furniture is not what you saw in the showroom. Same thing happened with our bed. For the second time after assembly we realized that the bed is of smaller size. In this case, you call them after assembly, they will send someone to dismantle it. That weill happen on one day and another person will come another day to pick that up. So, altogether 5 iterations for a faulty furniture. For our bed, we have this done twice already - meas we still have 0 bed status but have gone through 10 iterations. Cutting short my cribbing, let me tell you now what we have got so far. We have got a table, a chaste with drawers, a bookself, a dining table, a living room furniture, center table, dining table, a ward robe and a mattress in our house. Two chairs for office are delivered but not assembled yet. So, that makes it already 25 +10=35 sessions for these. The remaining things like a sofa set, a bed, another ward robe is what we are waiting for now. We also have a refrigerator, washing machine, induction heaters purchased. I forgot to mention, the mother of all, that is a Tata Indigo car is bought yesterday!! Waiting for a driver. So, looks like not bad at all. We came to this house on August 8th and in about 23 days all these incredible amount of work has been done by Pramod. Our gas is also approved, we only have to go pay and collect it. The last things in this lot is to get our shipping (cargo that we packed from US) handed us over soon. That is a very complicated procedure, I will write about it in my next blog post.

In my office front also a lot has been done. May be some people will laugh if I detail all that, because we all assume that everything should have been done by the appropriate people before I even landed, but sadly that is not how it works here. You have to struggle and get things done all by yourself. Here is what I consider a great feet that has been done in my lab in last 6 weeks:
1. Got my official id
2. Set up my email id
3. Set up my personal web page up.
4. Got my start up money approved by director.
5. Started placing quotations.
6. Already bought a microscope and got the payment paper work done for it.
7. Got my medical card.
8. Got a data card for browsing.
9. Got an office to sit.
10. Got my medical test done.
11. Got some furnitures via donation(I am not entitled to furnitures here since we are moving to salt lake office  soon)
12. Got a printer.
13. This weekend actually they are painting my room.
14. Co-wrote 2 grant proposals.
15. Participated in CSIR networking projects.
16. Interviewed Ph.D students
17. Inducted for teaching bioinformatics to graduate students.
18. Started getting emails from a number prospective students.
19. Working on another major grant.
20. Working on remaining set of start up budget.
21. Got my DBT money released(spoke to meenakshi munshi and her PA couple of times already)
22. Opened an account in a public sector bank (It is a big deal if you are dealing with State Bank of India - they are all paranoid about address proof).

There may be many more things that I did and don't remember right now to include. So, this looks to me as super productivity. Although there are hindrances, I am actually making progress!! Now I am feeling good that I have summarized all these as it goes.

The system may be complicated and difficult to follow, but once you get a hang of it, it is a piece of cake. Now, the canteen man does not give a scornful look. He actually chooses the bowl with more curry and puts in my plate:-)

To work, I used to take a taxi before, but now we take a cycle ricksaw till the main road and from there I walk about half kilometers and get a shared auto and then get down about 1/2 km from office and walk on the pedestrian path to office. When I compare the day we landed and today, I feel a lot of difference in our perspective. First day the road seemed crammed with pedestrians, auto, taxi, cars, old buses. But now they don't appear as such. They appear as people whom you may know. Even the roads sometimes appear empty(If you are there before 9 AM). I think space and cleanliness is a relative term. If you come from USA and land in Kolkata, it may appear very dirty, crowded, but if you come from say Mumbai, this may appear as a piece of cake (Sorry can't give a better example because don't know a place dirtier than t his). Now, I am at peace with the crowd, the dust, smoke and have adapted to carrying a handkerchief on my nose and walk. Even the homeless people staying on the pavements appear very familiar since I see them everyday. One of them stays near the auto ricksaw stop. He is actually a very clean guy and has a very healthy street dog as his companion. Many times I have seen him keeping a nice clean bowl of water for his companion and buying some biscuits. One day even I saw him sitting by his dog that was taking a deep carefree sleep on the pavement . The homeless man covered his dog very carefully with his only belonging - a bedsheet. A perfectly harmonious relationship they shared....

Speaking out should be an option everyone should choose...

Today we are completing exactly our four weeks stay in India. It has been full of experiences since then. I don't even remember how many times, I have visited to people's office to get small things done; how many times I have got shocked that they actually don't work or bother; how many times I have realized that the procedures should have been simplified 50 years back and so on. Now I am getting used to visiting people's office, writing notes(applications), getting simple things done on crooked way etc. These does not bother me, if the system is such, we have to follow. However, today something noteworthy happened and I would like to know from my readers what should be done regarding this.

The story goes like this: When I joined this institute, I had a regular position offer and a fellowship offer. I wanted to join the regular job but wanted to keep my fellowships contingency(this is a valid option) since the salary offered by the job was substantially higher than the fellowship. But the admin office said me unless I complete the medical test, I can't join the regular job, so I have to join as a fellow and I can change it to the regular position only after the medical test is done. That was fine with me and I thought medical test should be going to be a one day trip to medical and that is it. But that is not quite what happens here. The office admin sends a tattered paper to a place called Swasthya Bhavan ( A govt. agency) by post. Once that letter received at that place, they will send another letter to you to your office address specifying a date for medical test to be done at a state run medical college. But before that one has to complete a number of tests at a separate clinics and bring in all the reports to the board. It sounded weird to me in the first place. I waited for this letter from Swasthya Bhavan to arrive but it never came in 15 days. So, we set off to salt lake to Swasthya bhavan to find out what is happeneing. As ususal, govt. office, all are either yawning, playing games with the computer or not there at their desk. Everybody looks extremely bored. We were tossed from one place to another in search of the place that can tell us the section that deals with such things. Finally after few rounds we reached at the right place! But alas, the right person was not there. Someone looked into our eyes and in a cold blooded manner said that he is expected to come in 2 hours. Damn we said to ourselves, since it was already 3.30 PM, in 2 hours it is bye bye time. In any case, we decided to wait, then suddenly saw a weak man sitting leaning over a pile of paper and looking intently into it. Out of curiosity we asked him what was he doing? And then it turned out that actually he is the one that deals with my types of papers. We asked him about ours, and bearing a bored countenance he pulled out a thick file and searched. My letter was there in the bottom ( The ones that come first gets to the bottom). Then he kindly replied us that he has sent the letter a day back and that should reach us in sometime.

A week later, I got that letter from despatch, looked into the requirements. It asked us to do urine exam, chest exam, eye test and carry all the reports and appear before a board on 24th August. We did the needful, another day off for me! Getting the reports back is again another days work.In any case, going to the medical board happened exactly a month after I joined (that is today).

We had a scientist joined day before yesterday. He was from some University in DC. He said his medical exam was not done and IB clearance was not done, but he was being able to join the institute. Surprise for us, many thought may be they have changed the rules in a months time. Today at the stae run medical waiting room, I discovered him. I was shocked. I thought to myself, he may have been confused and instead of Swasthya Bhavan he may have landed here. SO, I went and was trying to talk with him asking whether he needed to go elsewhere. Then he said a firm 'no', the office issued a letter to Swasthya Bhavan and he took it along and got the dates for today and did the medical tests the same day (all in just one day!!!). It sounded impossible in Kolkata since I have heard from other scientists that it took atleast 2 months to complete everything. I was admiring him and was thinking he must be really a smart guy to have gotten those lazy asses work for him in a few minutes. Then the waiting began for the medical board. The medical board constitutes  3 doctors and a helper. They are suppose to see all the reports and ask additional questions to make sure you are physically fit. I thought there may be some order  in which they will call people (i.e first one first) and was expecting them to call me first. But to my surprise, they called that guy first and my name followed immediately after him. When my turn came, I saw his papers lying on the table (since he was done) and one of the doctors got a phone call. After the call ended, the doctor informed the rest of the people indicating that fellow's file that "He is commissioner's son in-law". Then I saw very pleasant smile on all others faces which was indicating their inner happiness to have served the "prince". Now everything started making sense to me. For him, there are no rules, no queues. He can break the rule and break the queue and as a result, the genuine people get pushed back. I don't think I am going to leave this here. I may take it to the next level and let everyone know about it.

The guilt of my inability to do anything or raise voice against such actions got partially erased when I did something today fearlessly. This may even cost my hard earned medical report go awry. Shocking as it may sound, one of the doctors in the exam room was continuously smoking. The exam room and the waiting area was getting stuffy with that. I could not stop myself from telling him that he should not be smoking there harming everyone around. While saying that, I was fully aware that I know no commissioner, they may as well screw up my medical report and make me do everything all over again or may declare me misfit for the job. But I chose to speak out and he finally said sorry. I am hoping next time when he lits his cigar in a packed room he will think twice....

Coming back to the earlier chapter about my colleague, I would like to know what should be done to stop such queue jumping.

Our first 2 and half weeks in India

We are going to be 3 weeks old in this city this Wednesday!! Now we are feeling much at ease and comfort. What we (Pramod) has done in these 3 weeks are remarkable. Being new in this city, it is hard to find a rental place, but he actually did find us a rental place within 10 days of moving to the city!! Within 2 weeks of coming to this city, we have already moved into our rental place, purchased most of our furnitures that are at various stages of delivery. We have been cooking for last 3-4 days, have a maid now for last 3 days, have news paper delivered to us for last 3 days, plumbers fixed few things,  ironing of our clothes taken care of, milk delivery taken care of. Cell phones are up and working for last 10 days, suitcases unpacked a couple of days back, kitchen arranged couple of days back. We have discovered few local vegetable markets, day to day shopping places. Life is finally looking up. Most importantly, we have figured out how to go to office from my new rental place. Here 5 Kms is considered a big distance. My office being 5 kms away from the office is considered far. Our housing society is something like half kilometers from the main road and given the road condition, it is not advisable to walk and taxis would not go from here. So, the best way is to take a cycle ricksaw till the main road (Partly because we want the ricksaw guys to get some money), then take an auto till another half kms away from office and then walk. It may sound horrible in the beginning, but we will get used to it.

Joining a Govt. job after long overseas stay

Landing in India this time was quite different from  landing in India before. Since this time it is permanent, we started looking at things more critically than ever before. I am not sure if this is the right thing to do. Fortunately or unfortunately I have come to a place where the systems and protocols are very much tangled in a mess. I have been associated with govt. organizations before, but this one appears like much different.

From USA, I have been sending documents from time to time for signature, but did not know until I arrived here that they have actually lost some of them!! Let alone sending it the right place. That is kind of shocking. I was surprised to see that people are still dealing with papers and files for procedures. Nothing works through email. You must make your presence felt, stand there and actually literally walk along with your paper, so that it moves from one place to another.

Here are few things that took me for surprise. I realized there was no sitting place for me, there was no id created for me, there was no email id and so on. What about computers? I must be kidding, that is even far away… Who is supposed to do all that? Looks like me. I have to run around between places and speak with the departments and make my case. For my fellowship to be released, I need a piece of paper to be signed and sent to DBT. But that will not happen until I go grab the paper, get it signed and send it personally. I thought that was the job of the admin staff, but hey who cares.

Something I saw yesterday, I think should be documented here. There are a lot of admin staff sitting on the downstairs in a big hall. Each of their tables are filled with files and and files. I was told that I should have my medical card ( I am not sure if this is equivalent to a insurance card). Then I asked a fellow scientist whom should I contact for this. He gave me a name and a department. I went to that department only to find that she is on leave. The I asked another fellow in that office about the card. Then he gave me a conditional statement – Go to billing dept -> meet Mr. X and if he is unable to do it then come back here. Okie Dokie, I went to the billing department, met Mr. X and at 2.30 PM, he was having his lunch. He said casually without even looking at me come after 4.30 PM. I obliged and went again at 4.30 PM. This time he asks me if I were a permanent staff. To me permanent has no meaning, no one is permanent, this term is actually obsolete. In a govt. institute no one gets a permanent position before a years time and people issue their cards much before they complete a year. So, in order to simplify things, I said yes, I was permanent. Then, they say, they have received no circular about it and feigned ignorance about my whole existence. Then another guy from behind tells, she is Ramalingaswamy fellow. To that, the lady sitting near by makes a ridiculing gesture  and tells “you should not say you are permanent, you should say you are a Ramalingaswamy fellow”. Well, I had to brush her aside and asked that guy that we are entitled to all benefits, now he takes out a thick note book and looks for names that were Ramalingaswamy fellows and had health cards. Luckily that day I spoke to a R fellow and knew about his joining date. Mr. X looked at the register for some time and coolly said his name is not on the list. Then I had to tell him to look at year 2010 records. There you go, it was there. Then he reluctantly dragged his feet, got up and went to the other side of the room opened an almirah overflowing with papers and notebooks, pulled out a big form and handed it over to me. In these last few days, I have mastered filling these forms,  so not an issue for me…

Job Redundancy:

I think much of the problem stems from job redundancy. In other words no one knows their responsibilities and boundaries. One job can be performed by many people technically. So, that leads to passing on responsibility from one desk to another. For my guest house stay extension, I asked one of the section officers and in the end, I said I was not sure if that was his responsibility. Then he tells, OK, you go to section X in room No Y meet Mr. Z ask him for a letter. I was testing the water, so did not follow what he said. Went to Director’s assistant and asked him, if he could draft a letter and get it signed by the director and he said he would!! Well, now I wonder why then it has to follow this circular route.

Another instance I faced today was about getting my R letter signed by director and send it to DBT. The section officer emails me saying the letter is ready please come and get it signed by director. I went down and asked the concerned person and he says, we will get it signed, so don’t worry. In the end of the day, just to check I went to that section only to find there was a summit of all admin officials. They are having a gossip session. I asked him if the letter was signed.