103% more gold recovered this fiscal year, says DRI

NEWDELHI:A staggering 3,223 kg of gold worth ₹974 crore was recovered from cross-border smugglers in fiscal 2017-2018, according to a directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) report released on Thursday.

This is 103% more than the gold recovered in the previous fiscal year, 2016-2017.

The report titled ‘Smuggling in India’ said 1,422 kg of gold worth ₹472 crore had been recovered across the country in 2016-2017. “A majority of the seized gold was illicitly imported via land borders in cities like Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, and Delhi, which are also high consumption centres for the smuggled gold,’’ it said.

“Land borders with Myanmar and Bhutan witness high rate of gold smuggling to Kolkata, which is then transited to other metropolitan cities.”

The report said the maximum

gold seizures were made from north eastern states followed by Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra in 2017-2018. It said there was also a marked increase in seizures of drugs and psychotropic substances. “The

number of seizures increased to 78 in 2017-18 from 64 in 2016-17, an increase of over 22%”.

Fifteen cases of seizure of fake Indian currency notes were recorded in 2017-18 amounting to face value of ₹70.06 lakh.