Gold Smuggling in India Spikes 446% in Last 12 Months

MUMBAI (Scrap Monster): While comparing to last year, the gold smuggling has spiked 446% at present in India as the country imposed harsh import duties to curb its over mounted current account deficit last year.

As per the report, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had filed 40 gold smuggling cases in the last year whereas it has increased to 148 cases in the past 12 months. The aggregate value of the seized illegal gold from 464 people in 2013-14 is estimated at Rs 245 crore.  

Most of the gold smugglers are arrested from the nation’s international airports. The customs officials at the Indira Gandhi International Airport said that they have nabbed 353 kg of gold worth at Rs 90 crore in this current financial year whereas it was 20-25 kg of gold in the last year.

India had witnessed a dangerous increase of CAD to $88.2 billion which is about 4.7% of the country’s GDP in the year 2012-2013.By imposing 10% import duties over gold, the country could narrow the CAD to a safe amount and it will come down to $32 billion by the end of this year, Mr. P. Chidambaram, Indian Finance Minister said.

Though the gold smuggling has reached at an anxious level, the restrictions on gold imports were inevitable which brought down the country’s gold import from 975 tonnes to 300 tonnes in April and May, Chidambaram added.