Smuggled gold seized at airports doubled in FY23, FinMin tells Lok Sabha

The quantity of smuggled gold seized from Indian airports doubled in the first 11 months of FY23 to 2,532 kg, as compared to the previous year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the Lok Sabha on Monday.

In the pre-pandemic year of FY20, the quantity of gold seized at airports stood at 2,630 kg. There was a sharp decline in the numbers in FY21 and FY22 to 1,001 kg and 1,240 kg, respectively, due to a nationwide lockdown and a subsequent suspension of domestic and international flights.

Mumbai airport has the highest reported quantity of gold smuggling of 604.5 kg in the first 11 months of FY23 — 562 per cent higher than FY22 — followed by Delhi (375 kg), Chennai (306 kg), Calicut (291 kg) and Cochin (154 kg).

Mumbai witnessed 50 per cent growth in gold seized in FY23 compared to the pre-pandemic year of FY20, whereas Delhi and Chennai reported a decline of 24 per cent and 22 per cent.

Among smaller cities, Amritsar, Lucknow Calicut, Agartala, Madurai, Mangaluru, Coimbatore and Cochin reported a growth in attempted gold smuggling in FY23 compared to FY20, while Trichy, Varanasi and Thiruvananthapuram reported a decline in gold seized during the period.  

The number of attempted smuggling cases of gold also rose 86 per cent annually to 3,614 till February in FY23, compared to 4,444 cases in the pre-pandemic year of FY20. 

The quantity of gold seized from airport personnel has grown four-fold to 80 kg so far in FY23, highest in the last four financial years with Mumbai, Imphal, and Chennai accounting for around 63 per cent of seizures.

The finance ministry in its reply said the smugglers of gold adopt various methods to smuggle, including body concealment, and on detection of such cases of attempted smuggling, action is taken in accordance with law. 

“To deter smuggling of gold and silver, the Customs field formations and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) keep a constant vigil and take operational measures such as passenger profiling with the aid of Advance Passenger Information System (APIS), risk-based interdiction and targeting of cargo consignments, non-intrusive inspection, rummaging of aircraft and coordination with other agencies,” it added. 

Last month, Mohan Kumar Singh, director general, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), at the Ficci CASCADE event, said the organisation seized more than Rs 1,000 crore of contraband every month. “Smuggling is a global risk that has negative impact on economic activities, deprives governments of revenue, forces a high burden on taxpayers, exposes customers to dangerous products, and provides linkages to terrorism,” he said.