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How the government’s gold policies make India’s neighbours richer and this country itself poorer

In 2013, the UPA government imposed a 10 percent import duty on gold. P Chdambaram, the then finance minister was quite savvy a

bout the way financial markets work.

He knew too well, that any import duty above the 5 percent threshold, would inevitably draw the attention of smugglers. But he hoped that official imports would reduce because of the higher duty, and consequently the current account deficit (CAD) would narrow. In his effort to spruce up the books of accounts, Chidambaram ended up making smuggling very lucrative for traders.

Gold has a special appeal for smugglers because it has a high value despite a low volume. That makes the smuggling in of gold easy — through airports, through passengers as part of personal gold, or even through carriers. Sometimes, when the contraband is large enough, it comes through dhows as well, and the metal is landed somewhere along the porous coastline of India.

True, the customs seize gold.  But as a reply to the Lok Sabha on February 3, 2017 (in reply to the unstarred question no 387) showed, the government admitted that seizures were scant compared to the volume of gold that was being smuggled into India.  The government admitted that the Income Tax Department conducted more than 1,100 searches, seizures and surveys and issued more than 5,100 notices, between November 2016 and January 2017, for verification of suspicious high value cash deposits in old high denominations.

Collectively, these raids and seizures accounted for valuables worth Rs. 610 crore which includes cash of Rs. 513 crore. Rest of the seized valuables worth Rs.97 crore was mainly in the form of gold, jewellery and silver. Of the 100 tonnes of gold smuggled in each year, the total seizure accounted for just 0.003 percent!.

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/economy/how-the-governments-gold-policies-make-indias-neighbours-richer-and-this-country-itself-poorer-4574121.html

Fake Goods, Real Dangers.

The dangers of buying counterfeit products aren’t always obvious. There are economic impacts, legal implications, and health and safety risks that are important for you to know before you buy. When traveling, buy from reputable sources.

Economic Impacts – Each year, CBP seizes all kinds of counterfeit products from all over the world. Counterfeiters look to make profits by making fake versions of the hottest products as soon they are available on the market. Each time you buy a counterfeit good, a legitimate company loses revenue. This translates to lost profits and U.S. jobs over time. Know who you buy from.

Health and Safety – Counterfeiters don’t care about your well-being. They just want to make a profit. Many counterfeit products are low-quality and can cause injuries. Last year, CBP seized more items that pose health and safety risks than ever before. The top three categories were personal care, pharmaceuticals, and consumer electronics. Protect yourself and your family by avoiding potentially risky items.

Legal Implications – It is illegal to purchase counterfeit goods.  Bringing them into the United States may result in civil or criminal penalties. Purchasing counterfeit goods supports criminal activities such as money laundering and trafficking in illegal guns and drugs. Remember, if it seems like a steal, it is.

https://www.cbp.gov/FakeGoodsRealDangers

Online Searches Often Lead Customers to Counterfeit Goods.

Counterfeit items have been a problem for some of the internet’s biggest retailers for a while now. During their analysis, researchers said, they learned about the proliferation of counterfeit goods simply by conducting searches.

According to the survey, 60% of Google’s first-page results for a brand name antibiotic called Bactrim led to websites that researchers believe were “very likely to be operating unlawfully.” While the biggest concern about counterfeit drugs (and the websites selling them) are potential health issues that could result from taking counterfeit medication, researchers also discovered that these sites could be hacked, leading to potentially dangerous consequences for a person’s private data.

The problems didn’t stop there, either. Researchers found that when they searched for a “Comotomo teether,” nearly one-third of all results featured “potentially harmful products.” Consumers searching for new “white goods,” or common appliances like refrigerators and washing machines, were regularly sent to a website selling counterfeit products.

While the issue has become widespread on some of the world’s top search engines, researchers said there’s currently very little legal recourse.

Through the study, researchers questioned how such situations could exist on major search engines like Google, which facilitates roughly 3.5 billion searches every day.

https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/15311-online-searches-counterfeit-goods.html

Online Searches Often Lead Customers to Counterfeit Goods.

Counterfeit items have been a problem for some of the internet’s biggest retailers for a while now. During their analysis, researchers said, they learned about the proliferation of counterfeit goods simply by conducting searches.

According to the survey, 60% of Google’s first-page results for a brand name antibiotic called Bactrim led to websites that researchers believe were “very likely to be operating unlawfully.” While the biggest concern about counterfeit drugs (and the websites selling them) are potential health issues that could result from taking counterfeit medication, researchers also discovered that these sites could be hacked, leading to potentially dangerous consequences for a person’s private data.

The problems didn’t stop there, either. Researchers found that when they searched for a “Comotomo teether,” nearly one-third of all results featured “potentially harmful products.” Consumers searching for new “white goods,” or common appliances like refrigerators and washing machines, were regularly sent to a website selling counterfeit products.

While the issue has become widespread on some of the world’s top search engines, researchers said there’s currently very little legal recourse.

Through the study, researchers questioned how such situations could exist on major search engines like Google, which facilitates roughly 3.5 billion searches every day.

In the course of its research, Incopro’s lawyers asked Google to explain its position on these websites and how it removes websites that have infringed on other companies’ trademarks. Incopro’s lawyers were told that the tech giant didn’t “at this time deindex URLs or websites from its Web Search index on trademark grounds upon request,” meaning that the company would do nothing – even if your intellectual property was being copied. Google promised, however, that it would “evaluate court orders issued against third parties and, where appropriate (with content specifically identified), voluntarily remove content from our Web Search results.”

Researchers also learned that Google would “seek relief from orders against it,” meaning that legal rights holders would have to go through litigation to protect their rights and consumer safety. Such a stance doesn’t favor the copyright holder or small businesses, since litigation is often slow and expensive.

https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/15311-online-searches-counterfeit-goods.html

Customs staff begin process to auction 24kg seized gold.

Ludhiana: Customs Commissionerate of Ludhiana has initiated the auction proceedings of 24kg gold seized and confiscated in different actions at the Chandigarh International Airport, Mohali (CHIAL). This was informed by commissioner of customs Arvinder Singh Ranga, who also said the gold was valued at Rs7.36 crore approximately.
Speaking to TOI, Ranga said, “There are nine international flights from Dubai and Sharjah per week at CHIAL, and there is arrival of approximately 1,500 passengers a week. The Customs staff posted at the airport is well equipped to curb the activities of smuggling of any goods, and the airport now has the advanced passenger information system (APIS), which helps in the profiling of passengers. In the first year (2016-17), one case of smuggling of 250g gold, valued at Rs6.3 lakh was detected by us; in 2017-18, as many as 25 cases of smuggling of 14.993kg gold, valued at Rs4.30 crore were detected; in 2018-19, there was seizure of 10.743kg gold, valued at Rs3.29 crore; and in the current financial year up to September, 9.57kg gold, valued at Rs3.08 crore has been seized.”

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ludhiana/customs-staff-begin-process-to-auction-24kg-seized-gold/articleshow/71531292.cms