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Informist, Tuesday, Jun. 3, 2025

 

--Sitharaman: Huge gold smuggling persists despite govt success in curbing it 
--CONTEXT: Finance Minister Sitharaman speaking at DRI office inauguration 
--Sitharaman: Narcotics smuggling even bigger threat than gold smuggling 

--Sitharaman: Need Centre, state collaboration in curbing smuggling

--Sitharaman: Need deep modern tech, global coordination to curb smuggling

--Sitharaman: Must show tangible results in catching "big fish" smugglers

 

NEW DELHI – Even though gold smuggling issue seems to be a big problem, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Tuesday spoke about a bigger threat to India – smuggling of narcotics, which get infiltrated into every state and smaller markets, with schools and colleges being easy targets. To fight this, state and central government officers and law enforcing agencies will have to show greater coordination, Sitharaman said at the inauguration of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence's new office here.  

 

There needs to be greater alertness, more actionable intelligence to curb smuggling, Sitharaman said. In the last one year, 

Directorate of Revenue Intelligence busted smuggling of 62 kilograms of heroin, 85 kgs of cocaine and 10,000 kgs of 'ganja', the department said in a presentation.

 

"Today, even if you are able to stop such nefarious activities, end result in the ground takes its own traction and that has to be expedited," she said. "Of course, the evolving geopolitical and trade landscape is making our jobs even more difficult," the finance minister added.    

 

Revenue Secretary Arvind Shrivastava, who was also present at the event, said Directorate of Revenue Intelligence should evaluate relevant trends emerging out of disguised supply chains, cross-border trade, e-commerce, dark web, cryptocurrency misuse, synthetic drug movement, and misuse of digital platforms. The department needs to move ahead with data-driven intelligence since in the current landscape, economic offences are linked to national security concerns, Shrivastava said. 

 

Both Sitharaman and Shrivastava called for greater collaboration with global enforcement agencies. Shrivastava said real-time intelligence exchange and mutual legal assistance frameworks are necessary to prevent smuggling. 

 

The finance minister said that while the department has made progress in curtailing and busting smuggling chains – especially in the case of gold smuggling – huge illegal trade continues of the precious metal. She reiterated that the bigger syndicates, or "big fish" are not being touched by the government's actions. "The goal must be to dismantle entire network and the syndicate, not just to intercept findings," she said. "...we should show some tangible results on it."

 

She said the revenue department's intelligence body must not view enforcement and facilitation as opposing ends of the spectrum as the robust intelligence framework that detects fraud is essential not just to catch the wrongdoers but to create a level playing field for honest trade. "Rules must be applied fairly and consistently and frauds must be caught swiftly in order to let legitimate businesses thrive and confidence in our trade system to deepen," she said. 

 

The finance minister also said that enforcement operations "should be rooted not only in data but also in armour." She said once smuggling is stopped and fraud is exposed, it needs to be judiciously acted upon as well in order to move from a fear-driven compliance to a value and trust-based compliance environment.   End

 

Reported by Priyasmita Dutta

Edited by Vandana Hingorani

 

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