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Gold seizures at Chennai airport drop by 50%

Gold seizures at Chennai airport drop by 50%

After an increasing trend in gold seizures at the airport over the last few years, the trend seems to be reversing. For instance, in 2022-23, Customs had seized around 250kg of gold, which was almost 25% more compared to 2023-24. Gold is usually smuggled into India from UAE and Southeast Asian countries.
Officials and those involved in the trade attribute two reasons to the drop — strict checking by Chennai Customs and reduction of gold import duty from 15% to 6% by the union government in July 2024.
'Gold smuggling has become a less lucrative business. The risk to reward ratio has dropped. The incentive for smuggling is the evasion of import duty and with the duty cut, trade margins have reduced,' said a senior official.
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