Smuggled gold seizures hit 3-year high; Kerala accounts for maximum cases

Gold seizures by enforcement agencies have hit a three-year high of 3,083 kg in November this year, with Kerala accounting for the maximum cases of smuggled gold seized, Parliament was informed on Monday.

Gold seizures across the country have gone up this year when compared to 2,383 kg seized in the 2021 calendar year and 2,154 kg in 2020. In 2019, 3,673 kg of gold was seized.

In 2022 (up to November), 3,083.61 kg of gold was seized in 3,588 cases.

In Kerala, 690 kg of the yellow metal was seized in 948 cases in 2022, up from 587 kg in 2021 and 406 kg in 2020. In 2019, 725 kg was seized.

Besides Kerala, states which account for high gold seizures this year till November 2022 are Maharashtra (474 kg in 484 cases), Tamil Nadu (440 kg in 809 cases) and West Bengal (369 kg in 214 cases).

Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said the Customs field formations and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) keep constant vigil and take operational measures, such as passenger profiling, risk-based interdiction and targeting of cargo consignments, non-intrusive inspection, rummaging of aircraft and coordination with other agencies to deter gold smuggling.

Last week, addressing the officers of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that smuggling of gold "seems to have its own cycle" irrespective of customs duty.

She had also asked the intelligence officers to study if there is a pattern and relationship between imports and smuggling.

In July, the import duty on gold was hiked to 12.5 per cent from 7.5 per cent to ease pressure on the domestic currency and dampen imports.

Gold imports rose 33 per cent to USD 46.14 billion in 2021-22. India is the world's second-largest consumer of gold after China.

As per a DRI report, the bulk of the precious yellow metal seized by it in 2021-22 fiscal came from the bordering nation Myanmar.

Chaudhary further said that in the last three years, National Investigation Agency (NIA) has conducted investigations and filed charge sheets in three cases of gold smuggling.

"Modus Operandi circulars related to new modus/method used by the gold smugglers are issued from time to time," Chaudhary said.