Letters: Gold rush

It will be tragic if the finance minister bows to the pressure tactics of gold traders and does away with the requirement to produce a PAN card for gold purchases over Rs 2 lakh. Considering the volume of gold imports, it seems that gold is increasingly being used to store unaccounted money, maybe even to partly finance illegal trade like the undeclared price in real estate transactions. Even with the current cut-off of Rs 2 lakh, it will be simple to arrange multiple transactions of Rs 1.99 lakh. If those opposing this requirement make the argument that much of the gold ornaments are purchased by the average farmer who is outside the tax net, then they should provide data instead of resorting to strikes.

 

P Datta Kolkata

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