Pramesh Jain
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials of Bengaluru unit on Friday busted international gold smuggling racket and seized a consignment of 100 kg of Gold Potassium Cyanide (GPC) with a declared value of Rs.32 Crores at the Air Cargo Complex in Mumbai scheduled to be shipped for Dubai based firm.
(GPC is also known as Potassium dicyanoaurate and its primary application is in the electrolytic gold plating of metals)
Initial probe revealed that the accused linked to Mumbai based gold firm,running the racket for the past three years and suspected to have smuggled around 2200 kilos of gold Worth over 1000 crore.
According to the officials,the GPC attempted to be exported,was falsely declared to be the result product made from the duty-free import of gold that the Mumbai based firm was permitted to bring in as an input against an Advance Authorisation (AA)license.
The Advance Authorisation Scheme is duty exemption Scheme (under available under Chapter 4 of the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2015-2020),where a manufacturer exporter or merchant exporter tied to supporting manufacturer can bring in duty free import of goods as inputs which are to be physically incorporated in export product.
Probe revealed that the accused firm never manufactured any export products out of the duty-free inputs that it was permitted to import.
Instead,it diverted the imported duty-free gold to the domestic market at a profit,by melting and recasting it.
This effectively,lead to the violation of the ‘actual user condition” imposed under the AA Scheme.
To fulfill,its export obligations under the Advance Authorisation Scheme,the accused would procure the GPC from their associate firm based at Gandhinagar,claiming it to be a resultant product made of the imported gold brought in duty free under the AA.
The connected firm at Gandhinagar was otherwise in the business of Solar Power Energy Solutions,an EPC Company.
The Gandhinagar firm,had imported this GPC,in the previous week from Indonesia by claiming benefits of the 0 per cent duty concessions available under the ASEAN India Free Trade Agreement (AIFTA).
Documentary and other evidences collected so far indicate that the GPC which was exported to Dubai,was moved again to Indonesia to be supplied back to Mumbai company through its linked concern at Gandhinagar,thereby demonstrating and establishing a deliberate and illicit cyclical sequence of supply of the same goods.
The DRI officials who based on a tip off,kept a tab on the activities of the firm and analyzed the technical evidence before zeroing in on the accused.
The estimated duty evasion is Rs.338 Crores.Two individuals,who were instrumental in controlling and operating this illicit scheme were arrested on Saturday and have been sent to judicial custody till July 21 the Senior DRI Official said.
