Customs bribes
Quite a few Armenians make their living by importing goods from Turkey, the Arab countries or Georgia. Since these usually are small time traders, they are vulnerable to the customs officers. If they pay the necessary import duties, they will have little or no profit from their trade as they won't be able to compete with the big boys ( who already have economies of scale with bribery costs). So these small traders pay their share of bribes to the customs police.
Working within the law does not make sense unless everybody else does it. Operating within the law is discouraged by the government as witnessed by the recent prosecution of the coffee importing company management who refused to pay bribes.
Please feel free to comment on your experiances with and the traditions of customs police bribery.
posted by ArmeniaBribeTips @ 10:35 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
One may expect to pay about 15% of the imported car cost at Armenia customs - including official fees. It is claimed that the amount of customs clearing depends on the model and make year of the car or the original invoice percentage - whichever is lower. (Information can be obtained at the "Araratyan" customs beforehand). Yet, my experience 1 year ago was that authorities 1)completely disregarded the original invoice claiming that it was faked and 2) intentionally delayed the processing of documents to the last day of the customs clearing deadline, thus making me pay extra cash or face penalty for the delay.
P.S. The above did not include $20 tip at the border customs just to pass it
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