What’s common to Sachin Ferrari and chapati-machine?

Sachin Tendulkar may be slipping down the run list this year but on one, he is still very much at the top: the list of those who got exempti...

Sachin Tendulkar may be slipping down the run list this year but on one, he is still very much at the top: the list of those who got exemptions on Customs duty by the Ministry of Finance.

Tendulkar’s celebrated Rs 80-lakh waiver for his Ferrari is still the highest to any individual this year. Crowding the list below him is an eclectic bunch of organisations and institutions: from the Golden Temple in Amritsar which got a waiver for a chapati-making machine to a church in Vizag which needed to import sacramental wine.

In fact, a perusal of the list by The Indian Express shows that Tendulkar is one of the very few individual beneficiaries. Yes, there is an elderly gentleman who applied for a waiver for Rs 40,000 for importing adult diapers—and received it.

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Sources said there are two categories of exemptions—adding up to Rs 30-40 cr annually—granted by the Government. The first is the confidential shortlist of security and intelligence agencies allowed to bring in equipment without paying duty.

On this list, besides agencies like the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB), this year the Lok Sabha Secretariat also figures. The Government also allowed a waiver for import of computer hard-disc analysing equipment to be used by the CBI.

It’s the second list—where the applications are cleared on a case-to-case basis—which has a string of philanthropic and religious organisations. Among the beneficiaries are:

• The Golden Temple: waiver of Rs 15 lakh for import of a ‘‘chapati-making machine.’’

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• Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care Centre: waiver of Rs 22,000 for importing veterinary medicine.

• Nehru Centre: waiver of Rs 10 lakh for import of projection systems

• Shanti Benedict Sisters Society: waiver of Rs 3 lakh for ‘‘bread-cutting’’ machines.

• The Diocese of Vishakapatnam: Waiver of Rs 4 lakh for import of sacramental wine.

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• Rotary International of Chennai: Concession to bring in 200 used computers.

Ritu Sarin

Ritu Sarin is Executive Editor (News and Investigations) at The Indian Express group. Her areas of specialisation include internal security, money laundering and corruption. Sarin is one of India’s most renowned reporters and has a career in journalism of over four decades. She is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) since 1999 and since early 2023, a member of its Board of Directors. She has also been a founder member of the ICIJ Network Committee (INC). She has, to begin with, alone, and later led teams which have worked on ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks, Swiss Leaks, the Pulitzer Prize winning Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Implant Files, Fincen Files, Pandora Papers, the Uber Files and Deforestation Inc. She has conducted investigative journalism workshops and addressed investigative journalism conferences with a specialisation on collaborative journalism in several countries. ... Read More

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