A foreign ship calls an Indian Port. The ordeal of the Master & crew starts unfolding. First is the doling out of cartons of cigarettes (Nothing less than B&H or 555 will do) and bottle or at times bottles of branded Scotch (Minimum equivalent of Black Label) to the Pilot. As soon as the gangway hits the quay, a hungry pack of Government officials clamber up the steps, seeking the shortest possible route to the Master's cabin. The most deadly ones are of course the Customs. They could number from a minimum of five to as many as twenty if there are not many victims around the Harbour. The Master and crew shudder at this merciless pack of wolves. Some of them, with their cunning & greedy eyes would scan through the declared documents at a measured easy pace, smacking of absolute belligerence & confidence. The ship's agent just helplessly fidgets around in this poignant atmosphere, about to explode any time. The Master gets more & more nervous, while lining up the cartons of cigarettes, bottles of whisky, & cartons of beers to appease the hungry beasts. At the same time, the beer cans keep popping with each tweak and the contents vanish at a surprising efficacy, along with the fast disappearing mounds of sandwiches. Then the errors found are declared with cold demeanors & concealed threats. The Master tries his best to haggle with his best face forward, but the beads of sweat and the wavering shaky voice, only confirms the inevitability of succumbing to the fat demands. The pack-head has become an avid mind reader, through years of experience, & ups his demand by his new discovery of some omissions of 'full stop's or 'comma's in the presented documents. As soon as the demands are met, the Customs leave the place with their booties & the Master collapses on to his chair, feeling drained and dry. However, not for very long. The other packs like the Immigration, different departments in the Port, the Health & Quarantine, Port State Control, Plant quarantine, Dock Labour Safety, Pollution Board and a myriad other smaller authorities, go on the rampage of loot from the Master till he is mentally and literally stripped of dignity and content. At times, the loots could include the poor crew's food & provisions and medicines, if the Master runs out of alcohol & cigarettes. This is how a foreign vessel is typically welcomed to our country.
While negotiating for vessels for charter, many owners, including many Asian owners, refuse to let out their vessel if she has to call any Indian Port. When they do, there is a special rider clause in the charter party to compensate the owners against such extraordinary expenses, is addition to a hefty lump sum towards regular entertainment & miscellaneous expenses. There are also other reasons like difficulty in crew signing-on & off, sending cash (US$) to Master, and delays of sending spare parts to ships (when the spare part crosses state borders – entry tax etc is levied and its held up). I know of one ship being stuck up in Vizag for one month, because the spare part landed in Kolkata airport and was sent by road, only to be caught up on the Orissa border for 23 days. The amount of hand greasing was more than 3 times the actual cost of the spare part. Not to mention the inordinate delay of 23 days and vessel staying off-hired for nearly a month. This too affects our image.
Having articulated the above ugly face of India, we need to understand that the real people perpetrating these sully & corrupt acts can neither prevent nor stop this. A few may display exemplary displays of honesty & integrity to behave otherwise: But their numerically rare & sporadic actions will be swamped by the collective manifestation of this malaise. It is a system problem, not people problem. If people like you or me, were in a similar system and under similar circumstances, would commit the same acts, be it by compulsion, choice or as a part of the collective insanity for our own selfish needs.
However, this malaise can be turned on its head in a very short time span to generate a pile of cash for the government and at the same time bring sparkles of pride and some legitimate bonus in the hands of the goverment officials, be they state or central..
This job of different officials could be delegated to one person in the Customs department. He should take a checklist of all departments & conduct this. Only in case non-conformance, the respective department could be called aboard. Over a period, this process could be made into an on-line data system, where the data could be shared by all departments, with their levels of access being defined by their functions. For example: The Pollution Board Official needs to know the ROB bunkers and entries on garbage or slop entries – not the cargo values. The making and maintenance of the system, could be out-sourced for a pittance
As a solution package, the tariff for official coordination per vessel could be fixed at 10 to 15 cents per GT. If this averages to about 1000$ per vessel call, the annual revenue could touch above 600 crores in Rupees, by just a rough estimate. Please remember that much more than this amount is being siphoned off the system by palm greasing of different officials, and the ship's agents exaggerating these under-the-table amounts to the ship owners, simply because you cannot get official receipts for these black-acts. However, a part of above collections could be given away to various officials as a bonus too. The ship owner will be more than happy to pay this amount, because this amount is much less than what he actually pays and assure him efficiency. This will bring smiles to the Revenue department, the various other government officials (with their legitimate bonuses), & the industry in general.
Capt PS Rath
CEO, Maxicon Container Line.
Singapore
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