‘Customs must improve pace, transparency’

Those travelling from Mumbai airport feel that customs needs to work on access and availability of information, speed of process, and transparency of duty assessment process. Passengers are also dissatisfied with the manner of payment of assessed duty amount at designated bank counter (SBI); in particular, the lack of facility to pay duty by debit/credit card and foreign exchange rate differential vis-a-vis other exchange operators. This was revealed by a first-of-its-kind survey by the National Academy of Customs, Excise, and Narcotics along with Wellingkar Institute of Management.

The survey showed that 69 per cent passengers rated their experience with Mumbai airport customs as better than other international airports, while 16 per cent felt it was worse than others.

The survey report submitted on Saturday to Najib Shah, Chairman, CBEC, said that a total of 35 per cent of the respondents felt that the clearance process had improved drastically at the city airport while 37 per cent said there was only marginal improvement.

The survey was started on May 20 with a sample size of 731 passengers duly representative of demographics, nationalities, and professions, said an official attached with the survey team.

The survey report, to which The Asian Age has access, identified TVs and jewellery as the two commodities that caused maximum discord.

There was inadequate awareness about their customs assessment treatment. The survey revealed that only 27 per cent passengers were “fully aware” of Indian customs rules and regulations while 17 per cent were found accessing the Indian Customs website for information.

Recently a WhatsApp video, shot two years ago, of two customs officials harassing and demanding bribes from passengers, had gone viral.

Going by the survey however, 77 per cent passengers opined that they did not face any difficulty or harassment.

The same survey suggested that most passengers did not have much clue about the things that could put them in trouble.