Most gold seizures at Chennai and Calicut airports this year: FM Sitharaman

Airports in the south, such as Chennai, Calicut, Trichy and Cochin, have witnessed the highest amount of smuggled gold seizures by customs and other authorities so far this year, Finance Minister Nirmala  Sitharaman informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

In a written reply to Member of Parliament John Brittas, Sitharaman said till November of the current fiscal year (2021-22), about 130 kg of gold was seized at Chennai airport, the highest among 21 major airports for which data was available. This was followed by Calicut, at about 28 kg. Relatively tiny Trichy airport saw the same amount of gold seized – 78 kg – as the country’s largest airport in Delhi, the data tabled by Sitharaman said.

As the chart shows, seizures of gold came down drastically in 2020-21, due to flight and international travel restrictions brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. Even last year, Chennai and Calicut saw the highest amount of seizures, in terms of weight.

Before the pandemic, in 2019-20, the highest seizures in terms of combined weight were in Delhi and Mumbai airports, at 494 kg and 403 kg, respectively. This was followed by Chennai (328 kg) and Calicut (262 kg).

The most gold seized in any airport in the last five years was in Mumbai in fiscal year 2018-19, at 763 kg.

When asked by Brittas if gold smuggling cases had gone up, Sitharaman replied in the negative. However, the minister did not give any reasons on how instances of seizures had been kept from rising, and why southern states had more seizures than other parts of the country.

India is one of the world’s largest consumers of gold, a country where festive gold buying season can make or break global precious metal markets. According to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence’s 2019-20 annual report, about $185 million worth of gold was seized around the country. This would include airports, ports, land and sea borders. 

Experts believe that the amount of gold seized is just a fraction of the amount of gold that is actually smuggled into the country.