NEW DELHI, Jan 1: An advanced electronic system has been made operational at five international airports across the country to keep tabs on suspicious passengers and check smuggling.
The Indian Customs Advanced Passenger Information System (APIS), which has been made operational at Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru recently, acts as an electronic database of all passengers, crew and other airline staff entering the country, official sources said.
APIS red flags suspicious passengers on the basis of their movement and other parameters and gives a lead to customs officials for follow-up, they said.
It has been developed on the lines of the Electronic Advance Passenger Information System used by Customs and Border Protection officials in the US, the sources said.
APIS was inaugurated in November last year at Indira Gandhi International Airport here. After seeing its success, it was decided by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) under the Finance Ministry to extend the facility to other airports as well, they said.
The system has been developed by the National Informatics Centre with the help of Directorate General of Systems under CBEC.
The system automatically red flags suspected passengers, crew and other airline staff, coming to India. The customs officials then do their check, the sources said.
“So far the system has been generating important inputs and its leads have resulted in apprehension of passengers trying to smuggle in gold and other banned items,” a customs official said.
399 cases of gold smuggling have been reported at Mumbai international airport followed by 265 at Chennai and 171 at Delhi airports this fiscal (upto June). The customs officials seized gold worth Rs 83 crore, Rs 40 crore and Rs 49 crore at Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi airports respectively in these cases, according to a customs data.
There have been 90 cases of gold smuggling reported at Kolkata international airport, 36 at Hyderabad and 34 at Bengaluru airports during the period. Gold worth Rs 19 crore, Rs 16 crore and Rs 9 crore was seized respectively from Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bengaluru airports, it said.
Officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), lead agency to check smuggling and customs duty evasion, and the customs department had registered at least 1,780 cases of gold being smuggled into the country between April and August last year. The value of gold seized in these cases is Rs 470 crore, the sources said.
Both DRI and customs officials had registered 500 and 869 cases of gold smuggling during 2011-12 and 2012-13. The value of gold seized in these cases were Rs 43 and Rs 129 crore, respectively.
Gold smuggling cases had jumped to 2,441 during 2013-14. The quantity of yellow metal seized in these cases was 2,344 kgs valued about Rs 680 crore, they said. (PTI)
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