Notwithstanding its sinking lustre among the general public post-demonetisation, currency notes, both fake and original, still have a prominent place in illegitimate trades taking place through the porous borders of Kerala.
The Customs Department has flagged concern over the high rate of currency smuggling attempts through the State’s ports and airports. The matter was raised during an exclusive meeting convened by the State government in Thiruvananthapuram a few days ago.
Representatives of all State and Central enforcement agencies as well as senior officers of the Reserve Bank of India attended the meeting.
Maintaining that the likely arrival of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) through the sea route remained a major concern, a senior Customs official confessed that the department was critically ill-equipped to identify such consignments. “How are our officers supposed to identify FICNs in the absence of proper training and machinery?” the official sought to know.
With hundreds of containers being shipped into the State every week, it is not possible to subject every consignment for detailed direct scrutiny given the staff strength of the department, which falls 50% short of the sanctioned strength. “Low-value bills, which are mostly printed domestically, may be easy to identify, but that is not the case with FICNs printed in Pakistan. We need force multipliers like modern cameras, scanners, vehicles, drones, sniffer dogs, and seaplanes to take on smugglers,” he added.
The department also raised concern over the rise in smuggling of foreign currency through the three airports of the State. According to official estimates, the Customs Preventive Commissionerate, Kochi, alone has seized around ₹91 lakh worth foreign currency from various parts of the State in the first six months of the current fiscal.
Hail from north Kerala
Interestingly, all the accused detained belonged to north Kerala.
Terming the seizures the tip of the iceberg, the officials said the actual amount being sent through the route could be several times higher. They added that the department was maintaining surveillance over passengers bound for sensitive places such as Dubai, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia.
Whenever the hawala rate of exchange goes above the rate offered by banks, the smuggling of foreign currency goes up naturally, in turn fuelling other illegitimate businesses including gold smuggling, they explained.