TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: The Commissionerate of Central Excise and Customs, which achieved record gold seizures last year, has detected the new modus operandi gold smugglers are using to illegally import the precious metal into India – luring NRIs’ to carry gold on their behalf under their gold import quota.
Commissioner V P C Rao told a press conference that the role of NRIs has come to the fore during their inquiry wherein they take advantage of rules that allow each individual to carry one kg of the metal, helping traders cope with restrictions on imports.
“In the last two to three months, the smuggled gold seizures (at Dabolim airport) has seen a lull because the traffickers are now using the NRI route. The NRIs arrive with one kg of gold and pay the import duty of around Rs 2 lakh, whereas the import duty levied on other visitors is Rs 4.5 lakh on the same amount of gold,” he said.
The Customs officials have come across at least five such cases after a string of 17 raids that almost choked the traffickers to import gold into the country. The most prominent among the NRIs have been from Bhatkal in Karnakata, Rao said.
The commissioner said since these NRIs pay the duty, there is nothing illegal about it. Meanwhile, sources told Herald that some NRIs bring gold on payment of the import duty, irrespective of end use and that some traders are paying air fares to these passengers if they agree to carry gold.
The dominance of Sri Lankan gold carriers has also prominently surfaced during the last seizures.
