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Customs seeks new rule on pets and passengers

By Pranab Dhal Samanta

NEW DELHI AUG. 27. Earlier there were barking dogs, now there are shouting passengers! Irked by the bad reputation they are acquiring with travellers bringing in pets to the country, Customs officials at Indira Gandhi International Airport here have requested the Union Finance Ministry to relax the rule on pets.

According to senior Customs officials, the rules are far too stringent now and that all they were asking was to bring them in tune with the norm followed the world-over. As of now, travellers are allowed to bring in pets only if they have obtained an import license from the Director General of Foreign Trade.

This, officials say, was impractical for a routine passenger bringing in just one pet. And this is exactly what was happening at IGIA as travellers are used to the one norm followed across the globe. Thus, travellers are stunned when their pets are confiscated on arrival at IGIA.

Immediately, emotions run high and passengers argue with the Customs officials who find it difficult to explain why India has to be an exception to the rule. ''Almost on a daily basis our officers have to deal with irate passengers who question the confiscation of their pet. Many of them even start weeping,'' says a senior Customs official.

In fact, the earlier practice was to allow a pet per passenger until some Uzbek nationals brought in about 40 dogs in one flight about a year ago. This led to a furore as the travellers took the plea that there were as many passengers as the number of pets. "These people belong to poor countries and would come to conduct informal trade in India, one of which was selling dogs and puppies,'' says an official.

The arbitrary entry of dogs and their subsequent sale in the markets of Delhi was, however, objected to by animal activists including the former Union Minister, Maneka Gandhi. The argument being that these animals could bring in foreign diseases and moreover, their sale in itself was illegal.

This led to the Central Board of Excise and Customs issuing a circular in October 2001 that disallowed bringing in of pets without an import license. An ''extreme'' position of this sort put officials in quandary as they face a tough time explaining passengers who have had to part with their pets for the sake of law.

As complaints increased by day with some even related to highly-placed officials and even diplomats, the Chief Commissioner of Customs here, Krishna Kant, recently wrote a letter to the Finance Ministry urging it to formalise the `one passenger, one pet' norm.

A reply is, however, yet to come and in the meantime, officials and passengers continue to lock horns over this. But most officials admit that this is an impractical rule to implement. As this official says: "The October 2001 circular was an extreme response. How can you ask a passenger to re-export a small puppy? It is quite inhuman!''

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