Bangladesh Jeweller’s Association (BAJUS) has called upon the government to conduct a special drive in South-Western border of the country to curb the cross-border smuggling of gold and diamond.

“The law enforcement agencies should strengthen monitoring in the bordering districts in the North Western part of the country. Bangladesh Bank would get 22 billion dollar value addition to the reserves when gold will come through legal channels and the government will get Tk100 billion to exchequer,” Reponul Hasan, Vice-President at BAJUS told a press conference at its head office in the capital on Monday.

Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has seized 925.91 kilograms of smuggled gold from the border areas of Bangladesh in the last ten years while APBN (Armed Police Battalion) and customs intelligence seized 2,583 kilograms during the period. The border guard accused 290 persons for gold smuggling upon 289 cases filed during 2014 to 2022; however, there is no information about further action to the accused.

"The country's jewellery industry has faced a multi-pronged crisis in recent time due to persistently overvalued US dollar and crisis along with rising prices of other foreign currencies and rampant smuggling,” added Hassan.

The trade body apprehended that domestic and foreign syndicates of smugglers have spread instability in the gold market amid volatile dollar market in recent times.

“Price of gold is constantly being increased in the local bullion market by creating an artificial crisis,” added the BAJUS leader.

 BAJUS also expressed concern that the import duty on rough diamonds is 89 percent without bond facility.

“The tax on import of smooth diamonds is about 151 percent. A huge number of diamonds are coming in illegal ways mainly to evade this customs duty. The government received only Tk12 crore revenue from import of the precious gem,” said Hassan.

The country's diamond market is about 11 thousand crore taka, according to the estimate of BAJUS while the market is entirely dependent on smuggling.

“While there are reports of gold smuggling, it is mysterious that we do not find reports of diamond smuggling. BAJUS feels that a strong role of law-enforcement agencies is necessary to quickly identify those involved in diamond smuggling,” added Hasan.

BAJUS Adviser Ruhul Amin Rasel, Vice-President Masudur Rahman, Executive Members Anwar Hossain, Ikbal Uddin and Ali Hossain, and standing committee member Shaon Saha were also present on the occasion.