E-way bill will be tightened to prevent gold smuggling

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Finance Minister KN Balagopal said that the e-way bill will be made mandatory to prevent smuggling of gold within the state and amendments will be made to the GST rules for this purpose. Gold is the most traded commodity in the state.But it is reported that there is not enough income from this sector. The new measures are to address this. At present, e-way bill is not mandatory for any product for importation within the state.

800 to 1000 tonnes of gold is imported into the country. Import duty is 15 percent. According to this, the country is getting 65,000 crore rupees as income. 60% of imported gold comes to Kerala. Apart from this, gold is smuggled to Kerala through other means. The tax loss to the state is around eight lakh rupees due to gold smuggling. Currently, there is no e-way bill or check post, so the tax department does not have an accurate estimate of the extent of gold trade. Only the returns provided by the gold dealers are relied upon. Calculating this and the volume of trading per day, it is concluded that there is revenue leakage. New measures are being taken to address this.

E-way

Earlier there was a proposal to make e-way bill mandatory for transporting gold worth more than Rs 2 lakh from one state to another state for trade. Although the e-way bill is applicable to all products worth more than Rs 50,000, gold has been exempted from this for security reasons. However, when it was discovered that gold was being smuggled by evading taxes on a large scale, Kerala put forward the demand to make the e-way bill mandatory. The GST Council had accepted the recommendation of the ministerial sub-committee headed by Minister KN Balagopal.

Generally, the e-way bill applies to gold worth more than Rs 2 lakh, but states are free to change this amount. Gold traders in the state have demanded that this limit be increased to 5 lakhs. The e-way bill is for transporting gold for commercial purposes and not for consumer purchases. Once the e-way bill becomes effective, the e-way bill verification system will come into force in the state. Apart from this, a special intelligence unit will also be appointed.

Exemption, confusion?

There is confusion regarding the implementation of the amendment. The legal department says that the notification should be issued by the central government. However, it is said that the state can issue its own notification if approved by the GST Council. The state will announce the decision after clarifying the matter. The National Informatics Center, which manages the software, has informed the states that only Part A needs to be filled to prepare the e-way bill for gold. Part A records the weight and value of the gold. Part B which records the details of vehicle and goods movement need not be filled. This is to prevent the movement of gold from going out. Taking into account the possibility of robbery or looting if such secret information gets out, the e-way bill has given exemption only to gold traders.