Illegal Gold Imports Through Indian Airports Surged

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The flow of smuggled gold through Indian airports has risen alarmingly since the outbreak of coronavirus has customs officials are found keen on screening passengers rather than baggage. Consequently, huge quantities of gold are being smuggled into the country.

According to Customs officials, the inspectors are found busy scanning passengers to ensure that the virus-infected people are properly identified and quarantined. As a result, they are not able to focus on checking customer baggage, as they used to before. The baggage is checked in random, unlike before when every single bag used to go under the scanner. The officials added that the lenient scanning system at airports could result in more gold being smuggled into the country.

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As per market sources, demand has witnessed significant fall during recent time, mainly on account of extreme gold price volatility. The official gold imports for domestic market use have dropped sharply during the month. However, there has been a rise in unofficial gold imports. Incidentally, there has been notable jump in inflow of smuggled gold since the Budget.

Gold is reportedly trading lower than its cost of import.