In Thrissur, Kerala, GST officials conducted a raid and seized a huge amount of gold. The operation targeted gold jewelery manufacturing units in Thrissur, known for its gold business, and seized unaccounted gold worth around Rs 75 crore.
As part of a special operation, officials of the Kerala Goods and Services Tax (GST) department have seized 104 kilograms of unaccounted gold worth around Rs 75 crore. The event, called “Torre del Oro,” is considered the largest of its kind in the state. The name is of Spanish origin and means “golden tower”.
The operation began on Wednesday night and continued until Thursday, with more than 700 officers involved. They raided and inspected around 78 locations in central Kerala, including manufacturing facilities and jewelery shops. The intelligence wing of the state GST department has been probing the jewelery manufacturer for GST fraud for the past six months, officials said.
According to official sources, besides seizing 104 kilograms of gold, authorities also found serious irregularities in billing and taxation processes. Earlier, sources said that 120 kilograms of unaccounted for gold were seized during the raid.
The massive raids were conducted under the supervision of Special Commissioner of GST, Abraham Rain S. To ensure secrecy, officials from across the state were called to Thrissur on the pretext of a training program and traveled in buses with banners of study tours, sources said. Dinesh Kumar, deputy director of state GST intelligence, told the media that Operation Torre del Oro would continue.
