National Customs Day: A peek into India’s only Customs & GST Museum in Goa

National Customs Day: Housed in a 400-year old building, Goa’s Customs & GST Museum is the only one of its kind in India. Here’s a quick peek into this museum.

Amidst the deafening clamour of Panjim, Goa’s capital, and the shimmering lights of the casinos afloat on the Mandovi river, there stands a beautiful building clothed in indigo blue. The windows wear white painted trims and brown awning, and tiny steps lead into Goa Customs & GST Museum (formerly Goa Customs & Excise Museum), the only one of its kind in India - a museum that traces the history of taxation and the battle of wits between customs officials and smugglers.

Explore India's only Customs and GST Museum in Goa on National Customs Day.(Preeti Verma Lal)

Currency hidden in the hollows of a book. Extra layer in the shoe sole for precious gems. Tubes of a bicycle tyre. Tiffin box with high-cost watches. Walking canes stuffed with diamonds. Ship hulls. Toilet commode with contraband goods. Headlight of a car. Even a white Premier Padmini car stuck in the wall, its bonnet open and goods hidden in its carburettor. Drugs stashed in sanitary pads to gold bars hidden in Frooti tetra packs, the Museum displays the evil-doer’s incredible ideas to outwit the customs officials.

A painting of the building (Alfandega Nova Goa) based on the travelogue of Lopez Mendez.(Preeti Verma Lal)

A Premier Padmini car used to smuggle contraband in its carburettor.(Preeti Verma Lal)

A tiff carrier used to smuggle expensive watches.(Preeti Verma Lal)

Mannequins sporting uniforms of Indian customs officials.(Preeti Verma Lal)

On the wall is a sepia-toned photograph of eight men who had 510 tolas of gold in their rectum and were arrested at Amritsar Rail Customs Station on June 10-11, 1956. There’s a black/white image of an underwear with specially sewn pockets to conceal gold bars, and an X-ray of the man who had gold bars in his abdomen. The ingenuity of the smugglers is intriguing. In the corner stand a fibre-built aristocratic looking British couple - the man had diamonds in the walking stick and the lady carried gold bars in her striped jacket. The two were arrested in Mumbai port on December 7, 1966.

Divided into galleries, the Museum documents and displays the evolution of Indian customs and excise from the Harappan trade seals and ancient ports to taxation tenets of Kautilya’s Arthashastra. Behind thick glass panes are gold coins from the reign of Kanishka II and Chandragupta Maurya as well as punch-marked coins - the earliest coins issued in India. The Museum also has a copy of Akbar’s Ain-i-Akbari, notes documenting cotton as the first good taxed under Central excise Act during the British India, and the modern-day taxation and customs laws.

An antique seized from a smuggler.(Preeti Verma Lal)

Currency stuffed inside the hollows of a book.(Preeti Verma Lal)

Specially created shoe soles were used to bring in diamonds.(Preeti Verma Lal)

The Gallery of Rescued Heritage holds a treasure trove of stone and metal sculptures, ivory artefacts, and coins that would have been lost forever, were it not for the ever-vigilant eye of the customs department. The highlight being a Jambhala idol that was seized from a bag atop the roof of the bus from Kathmandu (Nepal) to New Delhi.

Centuries ago, Panjim was a sleepy town. There was nary a street and river Mandovi kissed the first brick of the current Blue Building where in 1479, the Portuguese had set up a Customs check post on the Mandovi river. In the 16th century, horses, tobacco, slaves and spices were the common trade items while pepper was a royal monopoly. In 1770, export and import duties were set at 6% and 9%, respectively. Tobacco was brought in sculls and horses on larger boats.

Now famous as the Blue Building, the 400-year old heritage structure wasn’t always blue. Between 1963 and 2000, it wore a sunflower yellow on its walls and housed the headquarters of Goa Excise & Customs Department. It was in 2001 that the walls were first painted Indigo Blue, the choice of colour borrowing from the fact that indigo was one of the commodities traded during the Portuguese rule.

If you are ever in Goa, step into this fascinating Museum of Customs & GST to know the machinations of smugglers and the history of taxation.

Box: Kautilya’s Taxation Rules in Arthashastra

• Edible salt: 1/6 of value
• Fermented liquor: 1/10 to 1/15 in cash
• Cotton: 4% to 5%
• Gems & Jewellery: 20% of basic cost
• Flowers/fruits: 1/6 in kind

Fact file:

Address: Panjim (Opposite Panaji Jetty Captain & Port)

Timing. Tuesday through Sunday (9.30 am to 5 pm). Monday closed.

Entry fee: ₹10. Free entry for students with ID card. Request for a guided tour.

Parking: Parking is not available in front of the Museum, park at the back of the building.

The second storey is closed for renovation, will reopen in summer.