Gold seized a drop in ocean
Indian customs and revenue intelligence seize about 300 kilograms of gold smuggled from Bangladesh annually, and this amount of seizure would be a very small percentage of the total, said a top official of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) of India yesterday.
After China, India is the second biggest consumer of gold.
“India is a huge market for gold and people really love gold. We have legal imports and smuggling happening at the same time,” said DRI Director General Debi Prasad Dash.
Customs and DRI could seize roughly 3,000 kilograms of gold per annum; the highest amount of the precious metal is smuggled into India from Myanmar.
The revelation came on the sidelines of the two-day director general level talks of customs detectives of Bangladesh and India hosted by the Customs Intelligence & Investigation Directorate (CIID) under the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
Both sides are expected to discuss measures to: curb smuggling of gold and fake currency, establish hotlines, share secret information, conduct surveillance on the movement of passengers and strengthen the monitoring of trade consignments to rein in duty evasion.
The meeting takes place at a time when customs detectives frequently seize smuggled gold and other items and many officials believe that Bangladesh is used as a route to smuggle the bullion to India.
The DG level talks is going to lay a foundation for an institutional mechanism to work together to prevent smuggling and eliminate bad people to increase formal trade for the betterment of the economy, Dash said.
“The basic idea of this meeting is to ensure that we both work together in the common interest.”
In response to a question, Dash said the smuggling of cattle has been under control after India's Supreme Court directed that cows should be handed over to cow shelters.
At the opening session, he said India and Bangladesh share more than 4,000 kilometres of borders, so it becomes quite necessary for both the countries to hold talks to check illegal cross-border activities.
“The possibility of smuggling is always there in a situation when the volume of trade is huge and the border is long and porous.”
Bilateral trade between Bangladesh and India is $10 billion and it is growing.
In fiscal 2017-18, India's export to Bangladesh rose 26 percent year-on year to $8.61 billion. “At the same time smuggling is going on.”
He said they have seized gold, fake Indian currency notes, wild life items and commercial items coming through Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan.
Smuggling cannot be prevented single-handedly without cooperation and support from enforcement agencies across the borders.
“By way of curbing smuggling activity, we are in a way facilitating genuine trade as well. It is in the interest of both the countries to work together to curb the menace of smuggling,” Dash added.
The exchange of information and documents between customs of two countries is highly required, said Khondaker Muhammad Aminur Rahman, NBR Member of Customs Modernisation and International Trade.
Trade in South Asia is very low compared to the world, he said, while calling for measures to boost intra-regional trade to accelerate economic growth.
Comments