Where does seized gold go?

Many people wonder where the huge consignments of smuggled gold go after being seized by Customs officials at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport and Chittagong’s Shah Amanat International Airport.

The smuggling of the precious metal through airports has peaked in recent times, though the impetus remains unclear, the authorities say.

Customs officials seized several hundred kilograms of gold at both airports in the past several months.

Shahjalal airport authorities also recovered 106 kilograms of gold from an aircraft coming from Dubai on Saturday morning.

A curious Abdullah Mahmud Khan while talking to bdnews24.com asked where they would end up.

The owner of a graphics design firm in Purana Paltan suspected this huge haul might not reach government coffers.

Others, too, were curious about where all the gold went.

Shahjalal airport’s Customs Department Assistant Commissioner Qamrul Islam said he did not know.

He told bdnews24.com: “We send the gold to Bangladesh Bank after some formalities following their seizure. Our job ends there and we get busy with the case. We don’t keep track of that gold.”

Saturday’s seizure had raised much concern at the finance ministry. The ministry’s top officials were at a press briefing with the minister, AMA Muhith, at the time.

On getting the news from the airport, National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Md Ghulam Hussain at once informed Finance Secretary Fazle Kabir, who told the minister of the gold haul.

However, Quazi Saidur Rahman, General Manager of the Bangladesh Bank's Forex Reserve and Treasury Management Division shed some light.

He told bdnews24.com: “After the seized gold is received at the central bank, they are put in the vault directly. The gold stays there until the cases are disposed of. The government confiscates the gold after that.”

Then the gold is either auctioned and the earnings deposited in the state coffers; or, if they are of international standard, the central bank may buy them at the international market price and add them to the forex reserve, said Saidur Rahman.

The current international market price of gold is $1,300.80 per ounce.

Former central bank Governor Salehuddin Ahmed told bdnews24.com every country keeps gold in its foreign currency reserves.

“Considering the possible profit, many countries buy gold from the international market and preserve them. They sell them when the prices soar.”

However, both Salehuddin Ahmed and forex reserve GM Saidur Rahman said the seized gold had no contribution to Bangladesh’s $20 billion reserve in the central bank.