Mumbai: Gold seizure by Customs at the Mumbai international airport has increased by over 300 per cent this fiscal till February compared to same period last year.
"During the last fiscal we had seized 272 kilograms of gold till February 2014, but this year we have seized 856 kilograms of gold," Milind Lanjewar, Additional Commissioner of Customs told PTI.
Lanjewar attributed this surge in the seizure to the rise in duty and other levies on gold.
Meanwhile, the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Mumbai Customs seized around five kilograms of gold in the operation carried in the intervening night of Thursday and Friday at the Chatrapatti Shivaji International Airport here.
In the first case, 16 gold bars weighing around 1,860 grams were seized from under the seat of a flight. The flight landed in Mumbai from Doha and the Customs officials said that they seized the gold worth Rs 45 lakhs based on specific intelligence.
"Its an unclaimed seizure... We are investigating the case," said a source.
In another seizure, gold bars weighing 1,000 grams valued around Rs 24 lakhs were recovered from the toilet of an aircraft from Dubai.
Gold worth over Rs 50 lakh was also seized from two persons who landed in Mumbai from Singapore and Dubai respectively.
