A rumour making rounds in political circles says that a certain political high authority has turned over 70 duty-free shops at an airport into a veritable gold mine!

Tenders for these shops are awarded for a five-year period and the owners must face competitive bidding after the expiry of this five-year lease for the renewal of the tender.
When the tender renewal in respect of some duty-free shops fell due recently, a buddy of a high political authority had quietly met their owners and told them that he could arrange the tender extension of the shops involved for an ‘unofficial’ payment of Rs.1 million in respect of each shop. 

The shop owners concerned after being satisfied with the credibility factor, had considered the offer a godsend for it spared the hassle of going through the tender procedure again and agreed to the deal.

 So, the money had changed hands unofficially and the shop owners had received an official document duly signed by the authorities concerned extending their tender for another five-year period, they say.  The news about the duty-free shop tender extension reached the country’s highest political authority the very day the relevant official documents were inked. But none had questioned the roly-poly political authority about this deal so far, they say.