DC goes on trail of items seized by airport customs officials
Picture used for representational purpose. (Photo: DC/File)
Chennai: The import duty on gold is 10 per cent. The yellow metal is available at far cheaper prices in many places abroad. Naturally enough, the movement of gold is only one way and much of it is brought in by smugglers’ agents. The Customs officials at Chennai airport have been busy seizing more and more gold.
Have you ever wondered what happens to all the smuggled gold seized at the airport? Deccan Chronicle tries to find out how the journey goes of the confiscated gold from the custody of Customs officials to its ultimate sale as legal gold.
Once the gold is confiscated from a smuggler, it is kept in the strong room of the Customs department inside the old international terminal and the extent and details of the seizure is forwarded to the adjudicating authority.
The passenger would be issued a show-cause notice and after receiving his reply, the adjudicating authority would give its direction. When the authority orders absolute confiscation, customs sleuths would file a petition in the court for disposal of gold.
After receiving court permission, the department would transport the gold biscuits directly to the SBI bullion branch for retail sale. If the gold is in the form of jewellery or any other form, it is sent to government mint.
A senior Customs official at Chennai airport said the mint would melt the gold and make standardised gold bullion bars and hand them back to Customs, which would then forward the bullion to a SBI branch.
The Customs official added that the bank would make available the gold for sales under Customs-seized category. “Anyone willing to buy the gold can visit the bank and get it on payment of the previous day’s market closing price,” he further said.
Later, the bank would hand over the sales proceeds to the Customs department after detecting service tax and VAT. The Customs department in Chennai earned Rs 37 crore from sales of 132 kg of gold in 2013-14.
Disposing e-goods:
If the consignment has electronic items like memory cards, hard disks, cameras and printed circuit boards, Customs officials would dispose off them through e-auction. “We store the electronic items in the airport till we are allowed to dispose them. We will conduct auctions on a periodic basis to dispose the goods. The e-auction is done through a central portal created in association with MSTC,” the Customs official said. The Customs department earned Rs 3 crore by auctioning electronic goods in 2013-14.
Disposal of drugs:
In the case of drugs, the arrested person is tried in court and till such time, the seized drug is retained as evidence. “We will arrange for disposal of the drug only after it is permitted by the court,” the official added.
Disposal of alcohol and cigarettes:
The Customs officials fix a value for the seized alcohol as per the age of the liquor, brand and purity. “We sell them within six months as it is a perishable item. We sell them to duty free shops at the airport and in the city. The defence canteen people also buy from us,” the Customs official added.
2 more gold carriers in Customs’ net
As much as 5.4 kg of gold worth Rs 1.6 crore was seized from two passengers at the Chennai airport on Friday.
Airport source said that around 4.30 am, the officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) apprehended a passenger from Muscat, who flew in on an Oman Air flight, for trying to smuggle in 3.4 kg gold bars worth '1 crore concealed in his suitcase. At 11.30 am, the Customs department arrested Babu (35) of Porur, who was caught hiding gold in the washroom at Chennai airport.
According to an airport source, Babu, who reached the city in a Jet Airways flight from Singapore, left the gold in the washroom before walking out through the green channel. Meanwhile, Customs sleuths, who were tracking him, entered the washroom and found four gold bars each weighing 500 grams. The officials seized 2 kg gold worth Rs 60 lakh and arrested Babu.
( Source : dc )
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