Gold bars seized at Dhaka airport, 2nd this month
Including this consignment, 18 kilograms of gold bars from Shahjalal airport and 9.28 kilograms from the Shah Amanat International Airport were seized in November
For the second time in the current month, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has seized gold bars from the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka.
The officials of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) of NBR seized 12 kilograms of gold bars, worth around Tk12 crore, from a Biman Bangladesh Airlines aircraft (BG 4148) that reached Dhaka at 9:15 pm on Sunday from Dubai.
The gold bars, wrapped with scotch tape inside a fabric belt, were kept hidden at the entrance of the cargo hold, said CIID Director General Md Abdur Rouf at a press conference in the IDB building in the capital's Kakrail on Sunday.
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Including this consignment, CIID officials have so far seized 18 kilograms of gold bars from Shahjalal airport and 9.28 kilograms of gold bars from the Shah Amanat International Airport in Chattogram in November.
"The smuggling has not stopped even though gold bars worth cores of taka have been held. We have heard that syndicates of 4-10 members are involved in smuggling gold. They share the losses when a consignment is seized," said the CIID director-general.
However, he has not said anything regarding who is involved in this smuggling and why they are not brought under the book.
The CIID head said he had talked to the Biman Bangladesh Airlines managing director in this regard.
Abdur Rouf said a passenger can bring in two 20-bhori gold bars paying a small amount of VAT. As much as 98% of the total gold imported to the country are brought by passengers, known as baggage import. A passenger is paid Tk35,000-40,000 for carrying a gold bar.
According to the gold import policy of Bangladesh, 5% VAT is imposed for importing gold. As a result, gold importers prefer the baggage system to commercial imports.
Gold traders have demanded lowering the VAT for gold import, which the CIID director-general does not consider to be logical.
"From the poor to middle class, all consumers have to buy medicine. If they can pay 17.4% VAT, a 5% VAT for gold import is not too much," he opined.
Seeking anonymity, a VAT Intelligence officer told The Business Standard that they seized some consignment of gold bars from unscheduled flights. BG 4148 was also an unscheduled flight.
