The government has taken steps to buy a new, advanced X-ray machine to be installed at the Tribhuvan International Airport-based customs office after the purported failure of the existing machine resulted in the smuggling of over 60kg of gold on July 18.

Soon after the smuggled consignment had passed the customs and exited the airport, the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) seized the consignment from the nearby Sinamangal area. The gold, packed in eight sealed cartons, was concealed as motorcycle brake pads that weighed over 150 kg. The exact weight of the smuggled gold later turned out to be 60.789kg.

The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police is currently investigating the smuggling after the DRI handed over the investigation to the police.

Customs officials said that incident spurred the government to arrange a budget for buying a new, advanced X-ray machine to be installed at the TIA.

“We have sent a budget of Rs68.5 million to the TIA customs to buy a more advanced X-ray machine,” said Shovakanta Poudel, director general at the Department of Customs. “It is a part of continuous upgrade of technology to address the shortcomings at airport customs.”

An official at the TIA customs said that they planned to buy an X-ray machine that can effectively detect concealed contraband. “The existing X-ray shows black marks when goods such as iron, gold, battery and vermilion pass through it and it is also difficult to distinguish any metal hidden inside another metal,” said Poudel.

The official said they expect to issue a tender notice within a month after first preparing specifications and working out the costs. “We plan to ask suppliers about the type of machines as well as their price,” he added.

The recent gold smuggling case raised questions about why the X-ray machines at the TIA failed to detect such a large quantity of gold and whether the smuggling was happening due to a collusion between the customs staffers and criminals.

Meanwhile, the TIA customs staff on Monday protested by stopping work for a few hours, accusing the police of unnecessarily harassing them under the pretext of investigation. The police on Friday had arrested three TIA customs staffers in connection with the July smuggling case.

Police said the CIB had arrested customs officer Pushpa Joshi and two non-gazetted first class staffers Kamal Pariyar and Birendra Nepali from Kathmandu on Friday. According to the police, the total number of persons arrested in connection with the gold smuggling investigations has reached 30.

Last Tuesday, the CIB interrogated Dipesh Pun, son of former Vice-president Nanda Bahadur Pun, for his alleged role in the smuggling of the precious yellow metal.

Earlier, the customs staffers at TIA had submitted a memorandum to the Department of Customs, demanding a wholesale transfer of the customs staff currently deployed at the TIA customs, according to Punya Bikram Khadka, information officer at the customs department.

Director General Poudel claimed that there had been no obstruction in the customs clearance process. “It has been happening as usual,” he claimed.