Ahmedabad: When airport customs seized a 1 kg gold bar brought by Rajkot travel agent Jaspalsingh Tomar from Dubai for his sister's wedding, he had not imagined that his investment would melt into nearly nothing.
Three years after the seizure, the customs department offered him a paltry Rs 15,862 for that kilo of gold, which is even more shocking because gold prices have risen by 50% in this period. Tomar says the market value of the gold bar was estimated Rs 41 lakh when it was seized in February 2020.
Tomar has been fighting in the Gujarat high court to get his dues, after the gold bar was sent to the mint by the customs authorities.
According to his lawyer, Manan Paneri, Tomar landed at the city airport in February 2020. He declared in the red channel that he was in possession of 1kg of gold and offered to pay the applicable duty, but the gold was seized by customs officials.
Manan Paneri requested permission to re-export the gold but was refused. He appealed against the order of seizure and imposition of the penalty - nearly Rs 30 lakh - before the Customs commissioner.
On May 24, 2022, Tomar offered to pay the penalty, considering that when he brought the gold to India, its value had been Rs 41 lakh, but it had appreciated considerably. Even after paying the penalty, he would get Rs 30 lakh from his gold, as its value had reached Rs 61 lakh. To his surprise, he was told in August 2022 that his gold had been sent to the mint on January 24, 2022.
This led him to the HC, seeking directions to the customs department to retrieve his 1kg gold bar from the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd (SPMCIL) and hand it to him and he would pay the fine for confiscation and the penalty imposed by the joint commissioner of customs.
27/08/2023 Saeed Khan/Times of India
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