Customs department's crackdown on high-risk express air cargo, which largely came in the form of 'gifts' from the middle eastern countries, has led to a drastic fall in its volumes over the past two years at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA).
The decline has been 57% and 46% during the years 2015-16 and 2016-17, respectively, reveals data submitted by trade lobbying body Express Industry Council of India (EICI) to Airport Economic Regulatory Authority of India.
Express cargo is mainly used by business companies and others to sell product samples, important documents, etc, which needs to be transported immediately and in small quantity.
According to Vijay Kumar, chief operating officer, EICI, Customs department realised that such gift shipments required more oversight and began inspecting them more strictly, leading to a substantial drop in import volumes.
Moreover, licences of around 10 cargo operators who were found to be involved in its misuse were suspended. "After June 2015, these gift shipments never picked up," said Kumar.
CSIA is among the most important airports for import-export of air cargo from India along with Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and a few other airports.
Available records reveal that Mumbai handled 47,972 metric tonne (mt) of total cargo during 2013-14, which increased to 56,683 mt in the year 2014-15 before decreasing dramatically to a mere 35,670 mt in 2015-16 and further to 29,634 mt in 2016-17.
The industry stakeholders reveal that the situation has been similar at other major international airports from where the air cargo generally arrives in India.
Earlier, the duty levies on such cargo were exempted if its value was under Rs 10,000. The law was rescinded later. The large Indian diaspora based in Gulf countries normally used this method to send gifts to their families and friends in India, especially during the festivals.
The insiders claim that certain anti-social elements began making misuse of the exemption as these parcels generally faced lesser stringent security screening. Also, clearance was allowed on selective scrutiny of documents.
However, after the alerts by the country's intelligence units that the said channel is being used for nefarious activities by certain anti-social elements and even some of the operators are involved in it; the air custom department became stricter in their approach, reveals a senior air custom official who was previously posted at CSIA.
CUSTOMS BLUES
- There has been 57% and 46% decline during 2015-16 and 2016-17
- Business firms, among others use express cargo
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According to Vijay Kumar, chief operating officer, EICI, Customs department realised that such gift shipments required more oversight and began inspecting them more strictly, leading to a substantial drop in import volumes.
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