Air travel banned during pandemic, gold smugglers take land route via Myanmar
India Today
A DRI report states that in the post-pandemic period, the majority of gold smuggled into India came from Myanmar, and via the land route.
The Covid-19 pandemic and the long-drawn lockdown and travel restrictions changed the way gold was smuggled into India. If in the pre-pandemic era air routes and the Middle East nations were the sources of smuggled gold into the country, in the post-pandemic period, the majority of smuggled gold came from Myanmar, India’s neighbouring nation in the northeast, and via the land route.
The annual report of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), an enforcement agency under the Ministry of Finance, says that if smuggled gold worth around Rs 1,200 crore was seized in 2020-21, almost two-third of it was of Myanmarese origin. The report further says around 240 kg of gold of Myanmarese origin was seized and the actual volume smuggled in could be many times the seizure.
