Gold smuggling still rife despite the legal scope: NBR chief

Despite the scope of importing gold through legal channels, smuggling of the precious metal is still rampant, observed the National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem.

"Preventing gold smuggling has turned out to be a daunting challenge for us," he said.

His remarks came in response to queries from journalists during an award giving ceremony for Electronic Fiscal Device (EFD) using VAT-payers.  

"Not only to evade tax, gold is also smuggled to be used as means of transactions. Therefore, I am doubtful whether it will be possible to stop gold smuggling at all," said the NBR chief.   

He also said that they will look into the tax-rate to determine if it is a burden on importers and contributing to the continuous gold smuggling.  

"In the next budget, the government will try to find possible ways to make the import easier," he added.

According to the Customs Baggage Rules of the NBR, passengers can legally bring in 234 grams of gold or two gold bars (nearly 20 bhori), at a customs tax rate of Tk40,000. Besides, women passengers can bring in up to 100 grams free of tax.   

The Gold Import Policy, formulated in 2018, allows importers to import the precious metal at a tax rate of Tk2000 per bhori – which goes up to Tk3,500 including additional charges.

Sources say, gold import through legal channels increased that much in the last three and a half years since the government approved the policy.

Speaking on business people's discontent over the EFD, the NBR chairman said, "The price of the product needs to include the VAT. Customers are discouraged when they are told to pay the VAT separately. Many traders complained that some government employees and customs officials are reluctant to pay VAT.

Since 25 August, 2020, when installation of EFD began at a number of stores in Dhaka and Chattogram, a total of 3,591 EFD machines have been set up so far.