[MUMBAI] India's gold smugglers have slowed their operations over worries their shipments will be caught up in seizures of cash, bullion, booze and drugs that are aimed at controlling vote-buying in the country's national elections, industry officials told Reuters.
The slowdown in smuggling has boosted gold imports at banks in the world's second-biggest buyer of the precious metal, allowing them to charge a premium over global prices."After a big seizure in Mumbai, smuggling has gone down drastically. Grey market operators don't want to take the risk during the election period," Anantha Padmanabhan, chairman of All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council told Reuters.
The grey market operators can sell gold at discounts to prevailing market prices as they evade paying the 13 per cent tax, said Harshad Ajmera, a gold wholesaler in Kolkata. Up to 95 tonnes of gold was smuggled into India in 2018, according to the World Gold Council, although India's Association of Gold Refineries and Mints and other industry bodies put the figure at more than twice that.
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