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Jewellers' strike puts brakes on gold smuggling |
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Ahmedabad: The 42-day long jewellers' strike, lack of demand and volatile prices of gold in the market have put almost a full stop on gold smuggling through the city airport. In last five months, only one case of smuggling has been registered at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, while in 2014 and 2015, total 88 cases were registered.
However, customs officials admitted that the trend was present in other major international airports as well. "There might have been one or two cases, but overall, airports like those of Jaipur, Delhi, Mumbai and Kochi, too, saw a drastic drop in the number of gold smuggling cases. It was majorly due to the almost one-and-a-half month long strike by jewellers," said a senior customs official. The official further said, "Bringing in gold during the strike period would have proved dead investment. Mostly, small traders risk smuggling to supply gold at lower rates." In January 2016, Banswara-based Sanjay Kumar was held with 711.45 grams gold, concealed in a ladies purse.
According to data available, from 12.32 metric tonnes (MT) in month of December 2015, the gold imports in the state fell to 1.37 MT in February and 0.54 MT in March 2016. It is to be noted that only 83.84 MT of gold was imported in Gujarat in 2015-16 against 152.24 MT in 2014-15, registering a fall of 44.92%. The month of March saw imports at a 28-month low for a single month, due to the strike by jewellers. An industry insider said, "Usually the months of February-March have low demand due to fewer weddings and the NRG season wearing off. But this year, the strike led to a complete halt in trade, which led to record low imports. There was a similar drop in gold smuggling."
In recent months, more officials were deployed at the city airport and vigilance was increased to keep a check on smuggling and other undesirable activities. According to sources, vigilance was increased after cases involving senior customs officials in foreign currency and gold smuggling incidents came to light in last few months.
Restrictions on gold imports came into force in June 2013, but the number of smuggling cases peaked in the following two years. From 10 incidents of smuggling in 2012 and 2013, the number of smuggling cases increased to 88 in 2014 and 2015, an 8-fold rise in two years!
Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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