Mangalore
is a major port city on west coast of India having world-class
industries and educational institutions. The city can boast of having
an international modern airport that was known earlier as Bajpe
Airport. Several daily flights connect Mangalore with most major
cities in southern and western India as well as many major cities in
the Middle East, such as Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dammam ( Saudi
Arabia), Doha, Dubai, and Muscat. The airport runway design was much
criticized after an Air India Express Flight 812 ( a Boeing 737-800
aircraft), flying on the Dubai-Mangalore route, overshot the runway
on On 22 May 2010, killing 158 people on-board. The aircraft landed
and subsequently crashed, when it overshot the runway and veered into
a steep gorge at the end. The airport is however very popular with
the Indian emigrants to the middle east. Every week, this airport
handles only 26 domestic flights as against 52 international
flights.
For
all these years, the international arrivals at this airport, had been
mainly passengers returning from middle east. They never brought in
dutiable merchandise in great quantities. As an example, during last
financial year, the customs department's revenue at the airport was
a paltry 1.417 Million Rupees. Few months ago, India's finance
minister increased the import duty on gold bars to 10%, hoping to cut
down imports. This also had no major effect at Mangalore airport,
where there was no big change in legal gold imports.
For
some unknown reasons, there has been a sudden splurt in gold imports
since 23th
November 2013, and a gold flood has started coming in at Mangalore
airport. The main reason for this splurt is the increase in the
import of 24 carat gold bars brought in by the passengers, coming in
through this airport. Since this day, 132 kgs of gold bars have
arrived at the airport. Naturally, it has been a Bonanza for the
customs department. They have collected a whopping Rs 35. 4 Million
as customs duty in just last 12 days.
Gold
bars cost 17050 Dirhams or 2.7 hundred thousand Indian Rupees in the
middle east. Even after paying a duty of 10%, the net price works out
cheaper than gold imported through official import channels and there
is a net profit of 15000 to 20000 Rupees in this transaction. This
perhaps is one explanation of this sudden burst in imports.
However
not every one wants to import gold legally. There are always people
with criminal bend of mind. They can go to any extent and find out
more ingenious ways to bring in the gold. A 20 year old person from
Kasaragod district, whose passport gave his name as Mohammad Ashraf,
arrived at 7.30AM on 4th
December 2013 on Air India flight from Dubai. He carried no
contraband goods. However, when his baggage was scanned, customs
officials noticed two coffee powder tins inside. The sharp eyes of
the person manning the scanner also noticed that the tins contained
something of an unusually different density, than just coffee powder.
Mohmmad
Ashraf was intercepted and asked to open his bag. The cans, when
removed from the suitcase were found to be intact, with no visible
signs of any tampering. However, when the coffee maker’s label was
removed, a small hole was seen. This hole however was found to have
been soldered to seal it and make it appear intact.
When
customs opened the coffee can, to the surprise of everyone, the
coffee was found to have been mixed with gold dust. Nearly 505g of
gold was found mixed with coffee powder, in seemingly innocuous tin
containers brought in. According to the customs officials, the tins
contained in all, more than 1.7 Million Rupees worth of gold, that
was later seized by the Customs officials. Customs officials had to
filter the powder through water, heat and reheat it, the process
that took in all six hours to extract the gold dust. The gold dust
was inserted to the cans through the tiny hole under manufacturer’s
label.
Customs
officials believe that Mohammad Asharaf is only a “carrier” in a
larger network of gold smugglers. However, as per rules, since the
value of the gold seized was less than Rs. 2.0 Million, no criminal
case could be registered. Instead of paying normal duty of about 0.5
Million Rupees, Mr. Ashraf would have to pay nearly 1.0 Million
Rupees in the form of duty and penalty, to get back the gold.
During
last five months, as much as 12 kg of contraband gold has been
seized at the Mangalore airport. No wonder that it appears that a
gold rush of sorts has began at Mangalore.
7th
December 2013
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