According to Reuters, Indian police confirmed that a record sized amount of smuggled gold into the county was seized on Tuesday, after six people with 60 kg of the precious metal flown in from Dubai were caught leaving the airport.
With the World Gold Council estimating that 175 tonnes of gold were smuggled into India last year , this arrest will further increase the pressure on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to reduce the gold import duty from the exorbitant 10 percent in his budget on Saturday.
India is regarded as the world’s top buyer of gold, and the high import duty on the precious metal has increased the profitability of illegal shipments.
