Jewellers find new way to bypass tax authorities and launder smuggled gold

Consumers here are taking a bigger risk

Jewellers have found another way to bypass tax authorities and launder smuggled gold, say people in the know.
 

With the Goods and Service Tax (GST) rate on gold rising to three per cent and a 10 per cent import duty, the attraction of its ‘unofficial import’ of gold has risen in the past year. In 2017, according to GFMS Thomson Reuters data, 134.5 tonnes was imported clandestinely. This is on the rise in 2018, said a person who tracks gold closely.

Initially, after GST was implemented, when someone came to buy jewellery against his unaccounted money, this was sold for cash