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An e-commerce company called Wintrack Inc. announced that it would stop all import and export activities in India from October 1, alleging harassment by officials at Chennai Customs for over a month. The dispute was over a shipment consisting of personal massagers, commonly sold as sexual wellness products.
While Chennai Customs denied the allegations of harassment and bribery, alleging various violations by the company itself, Wintrack has received support from many people on social media who said that they too have witnessed corruption when dealing with Customs officials across India when importing various products.
The Union Ministry of Finance has taken cognisance of Wintrack’s allegations, and announced an inquiry into the matter by its Department of Revenue.
Wintrack, founded by entrepreneur Prawin Ganeshan, imports products available on e-commerce websites in China and Thailand to India. These products range from personal massagers to cameras and various electronic devices.
On October 1, Wintrack announced that it would stop operating in India saying Chennai Customs officials had “relentlessly harassed” them for 45 days over a shipment.
“After exposing their bribery practices twice this year, they retaliated, effectively crippling our operations and destroying our business in India… Despite our best efforts, the sustained pressure has made it impossible to continue operations,” Wintrack said.
Chennai Customs responded by claiming that Wintrack had a pattern of making “unsubstantiated allegations of corruption…only to delete such posts once factual rebuttals are provided by this department.”
However, according to Wintrack founder Prawin, he had deleted an earlier X post alleging corruption because the Customs had cleared his shipment after he made the post.
Chennai Customs alleged that Wintrack had misclassified its goods, and that eight boxes containing USB charging cables were undeclared, a violation of the Customs Act.
It said that since the imported goods (personal massagers) contain built-in rechargeable batteries, Extended Producers Responsibility (EPR) registration from the Central Pollution Control Board was mandatory under the Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022. It also said that identical products were imported through Prawin’s wife’s company, with the same “compliance gaps.”
Prawin, meanwhile, questioned how a massager can be sold without a charging cable. He alleged that the Customs department had not raised the issue of declaring charging cables separately until this year.
“EPR and LMPC (Legal Metrology Packaged Commodities Certificate) compliances were manually requested for the first time, causing delays and demurrages (the cost of the delay in collecting the imported goods). The law has loopholes, and officers exploit them at their discretion,” Prawin wrote.
In a video released on October 2, Prawin alleged that Customs officials have been trying to find faults to withhold Wintrack’s shipments and cause losses to the company, as revenge for raising complaints on X.
In the video, Prawin alleged that earlier in January, a Customs official from Delhi demanded a bribe of Rs 8 lakh over a shipment worth USD 1,300. The shipment was only released when Prawin recorded the call and posted it on X, he said, after which he removed the post.
Following a similar demand in May for a bribe of Rs 5 lakh, Prawin alleged that his shipment was released only after he relented and paid Rs 3 lakh.
In June, Prawin said he went public with another allegation on X after yet another demand for a bribe.
Prawin alleged that shipments imported in the name of his wife’s company were also withheld, and despite approaching Chennai Customs officials and senior police officers, the shipments were not cleared. He also named certain Customs officials, alleging that they used abusive language towards him.
The Customs department, on the other hand, alleged that Prawin tried to intimidate senior officers and threatened them with “media exposure and self harm” during an official meeting on September 30.
The Union Ministry of Finance has said that a senior officer from the Department of Revenue has been deputed “to conduct a detailed factual enquiry, hearing the parties concerned, officials and thoroughly examining all relevant documentary evidence.”
“The matter is being dealt with utmost seriousness, and the Government is committed to taking appropriate and expeditious action in accordance with the law. It is reiterated that the Government is committed to enhancing ease of doing business,” the Ministry of Finance said.