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Hike in gold smuggling after Govt. imposes tax
View(s):Smuggling of gold into the country, after the Government raised taxes on gold imports, is on the rise, Customs officials said. The latest two detections this week were one on Thursday, when a Polish national with 10 kg of gold and yesterday a local carrying 1 kg of gold, were detected at the Bandaranaike International Airport.
Since the Government increased taxes, over 41 kg of gold has been detected–while being smuggled into the country– and confiscated. Most of the gold smuggled into the country was reportedly from India, where tax on gold is high.
The Government increased taxes on gold on the grounds that large amounts of foreign exchange was being spent on gold imports, with no returns to the country.
Meanwhile, according to Customs statistics, this year up to end April, 83 kg of gold with an estimated value of Rs 500 million, was detected while being smuggled into the country. The gold was confiscated by the Customs, and a total of Rs 17 million imposed as fines.
Customs Spokesman Sunil Jayaratna said that every week the confiscated gold is auctioned by tender notifications published in the newspapers.
