Smuggled gold seized at airports doubled in FY23, FinMin tells Lok Sabha
The quantity of smuggled gold seized from Indian airports doubled in the first 11 months of FY23 to 2,532 kg, as compared to the previous year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the Lok Sabha on Monday.
In the pre-pandemic year of FY20, the quantity of gold seized at airports stood at 2,630 kg. There was a sharp decline in the numbers in FY21 and FY22 to 1,001 kg and 1,240 kg, respectively, due to a nationwide lockdown and a subsequent suspension of domestic and international flights.
Mumbai airport has the highest reported quantity of gold smuggling of 604.5 kg in the first 11 months of FY23 — 562 per cent higher than FY22 — followed by Delhi (375 kg), Chennai (306 kg), Calicut (291 kg) and Cochin (154 kg).
