Thread by @scarysouthpaw

Are you aware that Customs has a reward scheme for INFORMERS wherein any person who brings in specific information about customs fraud, import duty evasion is eligible to receive upto TWENTY PERCENT of the recovery the government makes in the case?

A thread.

Lot of people ask me how does Customs makes these awesome cases of gold/drugs and wildlife in the Airports and the Seaports etc etc. A lot of it is data analysis and observational skill. But a major role is of INFORMERS who give us tips and specific inputs.

Informers can be anyone. No questions asked. No questions can be asked about your identity. Only the information that you provide will be scrutinised and evaluated for its quality. If your input is good, we are good to go.!

The identity of the informer is paramount. Only one officer who interacts with you will ever know your identity. Noone else in the department can ever ask who you are. This is obvious considering the risks/threats which informants may face from the bad guys.

The amount of reward which is given depends on the quality of the information provided. If you give me vague or information already available in the public domain, you may not get any reward at all. So to make a little money, you gotta sweat a little. 😋

Example, if you say "one guy wearing a red shirt has 2 kilos of gold from Dubai tonight", your reward would be low. But if you tell me "Mr XXXX with Passport number 12345 is landing via flight YY-890 from Dubai has two kilos in his shoes", your reward will be much higher.

The same applies for drug smuggling. ( The reward in drugs is usually based on the purity report of the drug). There are certain guidelines for defining the amount of reward admissable in cases of drugs smuggling. The reward is usually Rs XX per kilo types for them.

On the other hand (and my favourite type of informers), we have cases of undervaluation/mis-invoicing/evasion of customs duties by firms wherein the informers have helped the department recover the evaded customs duties.

But if you want to give us information regarding companies mis invoicing, you have to give us credible, usable inputs. An actual invoice, an actual packing list, a pen drive containing the Tally data of the firm or the internal emails among the employees. Something we can use

You cant just come to the department and say "This firm is doing customs locha or import lafda" (Believe me, i have had such folks). We need clear evidence which will help us nail the firm and get the recovery of the evaded taxes done.

And beware. In certain cases, practices which may appear illogical are permitted under the WTO Rules and classifications. So the issue which you think is a violation of the law maybe actually something that is perfectly legal.

Ofcourse, for you to get the elusive 20% of the recovery done, the recovery HAS TO be done. So give us stuff which makes an open and shut case. If the information is weak or debatable, the firm may prefer fighting it out legally and we are all stuck waiting for the case to close.

Any reward is only payable once the case is completely closed. It means that all departmental actions are complete (Adjudication done, No appeals pending and full recovery of the duty/interest/penalty/fine is done). So its in your benefit to give us high quality intel.

In cases of gold smuggling, the reward is given once the gold is auctioned by the department (you get upto 20% of such sale proceeds). In drug cases, the reward is given once the purity testing of the recovered substance is done.

I stress it again. Your identity is completely confidential. You only have to give your Left Thumb Impression along with the intelligence that you are providing. That paper is then sealed with the officer's sign. It is only opened to verify your identity at the time of disbursal.

Caveat Emptor. Giving wrong information is an offence and the department can throw the law book at you for giving false information to us. Sections 177, 182 and 211 of the Indian Penal Code can be invoked if you supply false information to injure a competitor/individual.

Some of you may wonder how effective this scheme is. Let me tell you. It works wonders. Some of the biggest cases booked by Customs are based on wonderful information provided by private individuals. And generous rewards have been disbursed.

Aah. The most important thing. The entire amount you receive as reward is completely exempt from Taxes. Yeah. You heard me right. You dont have to pay income tax on that amount 😍😍😊

So if you ever come across a company involved in import/export which is mis-invoicing, misdeclaring or involved in some form of Customs duty invasion, now you know what to do 😜

Officers are also entitled to reward, in case you are wondering. But sadly, we have a ceiling of a total reward of Rs 20 lakhs during our entire career. So i can receive only 20 lakhs overall, irrespective of the number of cases i detect and unearth 🙄😋😂

We have the same guidelines which are applicable to GST cases also. So help the department recover money so you can also grow along with us. These are the detailed guidelines for reward in case you want to read up further.

dolcbec.gov.in/website/pdf/CB…

During training we were taught "The most sacred relationship in the world is between an officer and his informant." Everything is based on mutual trust and mutual benefit. I get the case. You get the reward.

End of Thread.

And finally, if anyone wants to give some information/discuss leads about things, my DMs are open. Anytime welcome.