From 2019 to till now, the authorities concerned have seized more than 450 kilograms of gold from the country’s main airport.
The government is losing huge amount of revenues due to illegal effort of bringing gold in the country.
However, officials said, as the neighboring country consumes 80 percent of the global gold, unscrupulous people are using Bangladesh as a safe route of gold smuggling. To identify those who are involved in smuggling, the authorities concerned have intensified their surveillance.
Director General of the Department of Customs Intelligence Dr Abdur Rauf said, "Our neighboring country, they like three things very much. Movies, Cricket, Gold. They use lots of gold. India accounts for 80 percent of the world's gold, used for personal use. We caught so much smuggling worth of thousand crores of taka. Yet they are doing this. So, it can be said that they still have benefits here."
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"The Jewelry Owners Association of our country wants to reduce VAT and tax on gold imports. Then they will import. But we do not see the logic in this. Where 17 percent VAT has to be paid on the import of medicines, VAT has to be paid on going to restaurants, why should I reduce the VAT on the import of gold," he threw question.
According to customs intelligence, till now in the current fiscal year of 2021-2022 66.964 kg gold has been seized, 174.49 kg of gold was in 2020-2021 fiscal year, and 180.35 kg in 2019-2020 fiscal year. If per kg gold price now stand at Tk 49,35,827, the government has lost huge amount of revenue.
According to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) information, to reduce gold smuggling and other untoward incidents, the whole airport is now brought under continuous surveillance.
From entrance to cargo handling monitoring has been intensified using CCTV. Besides, security and checking has been also made stronger.
