Plane passenger smuggles 2 pounds of gold in body to dodge taxes, India officials say
A passenger at an airport in India apparently was desperate to avoid paying taxes when flying in from Dubai on Tuesday:Authorities at Kannur Airport in Kerala said he was concealing around 2 pounds of flattened gold in his rectum.
And he wasn’t the only one.
According to the National News, another passenger on the same flight was caught also attempting to sneak more than 3 pounds of gold into the country, though officials did not say where the person hid the precious metal.
People have been stashing foreign currencies on their bodies while entering the country to avoid declaring and having to pay the 18 percent goods and services tax on it, the publication said.
Up to “one-forth of the total volume of gold entering India arrives through illicit trade,” India Today reported in July. Up to 200 tonnes (a term for metric ton) is being smuggled into the country a year, it reported.
This story was originally published October 16, 2020 at 4:45 PM with the headline "Plane passenger smuggles 2 pounds of gold in body to dodge taxes, India officials say."