9.5 kg Gold Ornaments Seized for Sales Tax Evasion
The Intelligence Wing of Commercial Taxes Department has seized 9.5 kg of gold ornaments at Nedumbassery airport brought from Haryana by evading sales tax.
An official of the Commercial Tax Department said the ornaments were brought to Kerala in a consignment registered in the name of several persons for Joy Alukkas Group. The official said 11 consignments of gold ornaments were seized from a Thrissur-native identified as Jerry Jose, an employee of Joy Alukkas, in the parking area of the Nedumbassery airport.
He arrived here in a GoAir flight from New Delhi on late Friday. “Out of the 11 consignments, eight were to be transported to a gold-processing firm named Thrissur Gold in Thrissur. The eight consignments were antique gold ornaments collected from various jewellery shops in North India. These were to be supplied to Joy Alukkas after processing. The other three consignments were to be supplied directly to jewellery shops of the company in various part of the state,” Commercial Tax officials said.
Sales Tax officer P C Joseph said the seized gold ornaments contained bangles, ear rings and chains.
“The value of the 11 consignments is Rs 3 crore, of which eight consignments to be delivered at Thrissur Gold were worth Rs 1.8 crore. We have issued a notice to Joy Alukkas in this regard. For evasion of duty, the persons concerned will have to pay a fine of Rs 30 lakh and sales tax of Rs 15 lakh. After paying the amount, the gold would be released. The gold has been moved to the district treasury,” Joseph said.
According to Joseph, as gold is in high demand, jewellers in the state are purchasing gold from North India and bringing it to Kerala without paying sales tax.
“Recently, incidents of bringing gold without paying sales tax have increased considerably. To check such illegal activities, we have decided to check the stocks with the jewellers in the state. Similarly, activities of our intelligence wing will be enhanced to curb illegal transportation of gold to the state,” he said.
Joy Alukkas, managing director of Joy Alukkas Group, denied doing anything illegal. “We usually transport ornaments from one showroom to another. This time we were bringing ornaments from Delhi. Unfortunately, the person carrying the ornaments lost a document related to sales tax. We would produce the document before the Commercial Taxes Department for release of the gold by Monday,” he said.