Bizman spars with Chennai Customs over massager import row

CHENNAI: A wordy dispute between an importer and Chennai Customs erupted into public view through social media, culminating in the importer's announcement to cease all India operations from October 1, and a sharp, detailed rebuttal from the Customs Department.

The controversy began when an importer, Prawin Ganeshan, publicly declared his company's exit from the Indian market due to “relentless harassment” by Chennai Customs officials over the past 45 days. After he exposed bribery within the department twice this year, the officials retaliated by crippling his operations, ultimately "destroying our business in India", he alleged.

In a swift and unusually detailed response, the Chennai Customs issued a formal rebuttal on its social media handle, categorically denying all allegations and accusing the importer of a "calculated pattern" of making false claims to evade legal compliance.

The Customs statement centred on a specific shipment, Bill of Entry No. 3837029, from August 12, 2025. According to the department, the examination revealed multiple, serious violations.

It alleged that the imported goods were found to be incorrectly classified under the Customs tariff head, a discrepancy the importer allegedly accepted on September 1. Another charge it raised was that physical inspection uncovered eight boxes of USB charging cables that were not declared in any shipping documents, constituting a violation of the Customs Act, 1962.

Also, the consignment contained built-in rechargeable batteries but lacked the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) registration from the Central Pollution Control Board, which is mandatory under the Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022, it said, adding that the importer failed to provide the EPR certificate despite repeated opportunities and instead submitted incorrect documentation and ‘legally untenable’ exemption.

Refusing to let the matter go, Prawin posted the photo of the massager and wondered how a factory could sell a massager without a charging cable, which is included as part of the new product kit. Every new product requires a charging cable to function, he noted.

“Customs raised an issue for the first time this year, questioning why charging cables were not declared separately. Charging cables are not sold separately and are always listed in the packing list. EPR and LMPC compliances were manually requested for the first time, causing delays and demurrages. The law has loopholes, and officers exploit them at their discretion," he alleged.

The matter came to the attention of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who also took to social media to term the episode “truly dismaying”. “Corruption remains rampant across the system and most companies simply comply as part of the ‘price of doing business’. It doesn’t have to be this way. Indeed, it must not be like this if the country is to grow and prosper".

Besides him, a large number of social media users chimed in with their not-so-good experiences with Customs officials when they dealt with import or export.