The State Goods and Services Tax (GST) officers on Thursday apprehended a college student from Thrissur with 900 grams of gold ornaments in his possession.
N. Gopakumar, Intelligence wing head at the Attingal GST office, said the youth was found under suspicious circumstances on the Varkala railway station premises and the examination of his bag led to the discovery of ornaments to the tune of ₹30 lakh which did not have proper documents. A relative apparently entrusted him with the gold to be delivered to a jewellery outlet in the district. The youth was let off after being made to pay ₹1.76 lakh — 3% of the gold’s value as tax and 3% as penalty.
The recent spurt in such cases are keeping the GST officials on tenterhooks.
At Amaravila
A few days ago, 14.75 kg of gold was seized from near the Amaravila check-post.
“Of late, there have been several attempts to smuggle ornaments by evading tax. The vulnerability of check-posts, railway stations, and other transit points could be a reason behind the trend. Besides, we will be forced to rely heavily on intelligence inputs with the removal of the sales check-post at Amaravila by this month end. However, all efforts were being made to intensify our operations and detect attempts to smuggle unaccounted gold and other valuables,” Mr. Gopakumar said.
Incidentally, excise officials at Amaravila apprehended two persons who tried to smuggle 1.33 kg of gold ornaments through the check-post late on Wednesday. Ornaments to the tune of ₹45 lakh were found to be brought in a car from Tiruchirappally. The seized items were handed over to the State GST Department, according to Amaravila excise check-post Circle Inspector V. Subhash.
It was on Monday that three natives of Rajasthan were held while smuggling 14.75 kg of gold to the tune of ₹4.80 crore from Tamil Nadu.
They were later released after being made to pay ₹30 lakh as tax and penalty.
The GST officials also confiscated around 2 kg of gold ornaments to the tune of ₹71 lakh from two persons at Chala on Wednesday. A set of diamonds to the tune of ₹60 lakh that was confiscated by the State GST officials at Nedumangad two weeks ago were yet to be claimed, official sources said.
