Upsurge in Gold Ingot Smuggling; 230 Million Yen of Tax Evaded

It seems more gold ingots are lately being smuggled by air into Japan, excise tax evasion aggregating 230 million yen over 12 months from July last year - the highest in the last 10 years.

According to the Ministry of Finance, 177 cases or 700 kg of gold ingot smuggled into Japan were apprehended over a year from July last year till June this year, 22 times over the same period, the previous year.

When importing gold ingot to Japan, an excise tax of 8% is levied at the airport of entry. The amount of excise tax evaded over the period totaled 236,790 million yen, the highest since 2005 when the ministry started compiling statistics.

The Finance Ministry says in most cases criminal groups attempt to accrue the excise tax (8%) worth of profit by smuggling gold bars to sell to the gold dealers the excise tax included. They will smuggle always by air rolled into silicon resign around the belly or hidden inside the note PCs.

The ministry bares that the criminal groups systematically recruit carriers through illegal websites. Smuggling will be further scrutinized to expose the network, says the ministry.

Immediately after the war, gold lost value the world over compelling Japan to totally ban gold imports to save home gold mines on the verge of closing down. Gold smuggling ensued.

What's happening right now is the other way round: gold price is way high and yet gold smuggling still ensues. As aforementioned the smugglers have found a bypass to make excise tax worth of profit.

The current price of gold is 5.3 million yen per kilogram. Profit off excise tax then is 424,000. If apprehended, a total tax plus fine will amount to1.6 million yen. Supposing the maximum load per person at 4 kilograms, its value will run up to 21.20 million yen or a profit of 1.69 million yen.

This explains why the upsurge in gold ingot smuggling.