From May to June 19, the department registered nine cases of gold smuggling and seized about 30 kilos of gold worth Rs 8.5 crore. Officials managed to detect three major cases of smuggling in the last ten days.
A senior customs officer at the airport stated that Goa Customs was making optimum use of its available strength, and if the number was more, they would surely perform much better at cargo and passenger terminals.
“We are trying to deploy available officers at key positions in the passenger terminal and cargo section. However, sometimes it becomes very difficult to deploy officers at all crucial points, and thus, we have forwarded a request to the Central Board of Excise and Customs to provide additional staff for Goa,” said K Anpazhakan, Commissioner of Customs, Central Exercise and Service Tax, Goa.
According to Anpazhakan, the customs officials at Dabolim airport have to keep strict vigil at the passenger terminal, aero bridge, tarmac area, cargo, departure and arrival area. Presently, these spots are handled by only 17 officers attached to air customs, while the requirement is 27 (shift basis).
Interestingly, the staff-crunch issue has been pending for three years. Operations from the old terminal building were somewhat manageable, but after the construction of the new terminal and the increase in volume of cargo and passenger traffic, the hardships faced by these officers have doubled.
What makes the situation worse is the non-availability of amenities. Anpazhakan said, “There is no room for assistant commissioner and an air intelligence unit. All such mandatory requirements have been brought to the notice of Airport Authority. Let us see when we will get all these facilities at Goa airport.”
Gold worth Rs 2 crore seized
On Friday, the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of Goa Customs seized 7.440 kilos of gold worth Rs 2.07 crore from Qatar flight (QR-522), which flew into Goa from Doha. The gold was concealed under a seat and was noticed by AIU staff.
This is the third seizure at the airport in the last ten days. Sources at the airport disclosed that international passengers could have purposely hidden the gold in the plane so that local staff could smuggle it out of the airport later.
“After the last two seizures, we had increased our vigilance. When the officers went to the aircraft, probably the smugglers got worried and abandoned the gold,” said K Anpazhakan, Commissioner of Customs, Central Exercise and Service tax, Goa.
He further said that after the seizure, a team from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence picked up seven passengers, but did not make any headway. He added, “We started our inquiry in the two earlier cases. As the people involved were from Bhatkal, we have sought help from the Bangalore unit. They will be assisting us with the investigation.
