Lucknow turns into transit point for smugglers

The Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport (CCSA) in Lucknow has turned into a major transit point for gold smugglers during the last five years.

Since 2018, the customs department has arrested over 100 carriers and seized around 225 kg of smuggled yellow metal worth around ₹120 crore from them.

Around 56.97 kg of smuggled gold was seized in 2018-19, 51.73 kg in 2019-20, 26.62 kg in 2020-21, 47.67 kg in 2021-22, and 52 kg in 2022-23 by customs officials from the airport.

From January to July 2023, more than 30 kg of gold was seized from smugglers, said a Lucknow customs official at the airport.

Before international flights started from Lucknow, most of the gold smuggling was done through Mumbai.

But after strictness at bigger airports like Mumbai and Delhi, smugglers found smaller airports like Lucknow or Varanasi more feasible for them, said officials.

Smuggling of the yellow metal is more from Gulf countries as gold rates are much lower there.

Gold costs between ₹45-50 lakh per kg in Gulf countries.

If brought to India legally, then 3% GST has added to the cost apart from 7.5% customs duty and 2.5% agriculture infrastructure and development cess, taking the figure to around ₹60 lahks per kg here.

But when it is smuggled, there is a net profit of ₹5 to 7 lakh per kg for smugglers.