Codenamed 'Torre del Oro', the inspection involves around 700 GST officials from across the state. The inspections that began on Wednesday, are still continuing.
Published Oct 24, 2024 | 10:46 AM ⚊ Updated Oct 24, 2024 | 10:46 AM
GST raids in Thrissur. (Representative image)
Goods and Services Tax (GST) Special Commissioner Abraham Renn S is leading a massive inspection of gold jewellery manufacturing units across the Thrissur district.
Considered to be the biggest operation in Kerala, the inspections began on Wednesday evening and were continuing on Thursday, 24 October.
More than 700 officials were checking around 75 locations, including manufacturing units and residences of jewellers. To maintain secrecy, officials from across the state were summoned to Thrissur in the guise of a training programme, and were ferried to various locations on buses sporting banners saying ‘study tour’.
Reports said the officials had uncovered significant irregularities in billing and taxation processes, besides seizing gold weighing 100 kg. Thrissur has been known as one of the major gold and diamond jewellery-making centres in India.
State GST Intelligence Deputy Commissioner Dinesh Kumar told the media that the operation, codenamed Torre del Oro, would continue.
Torre del Oro — or the Tower of Gold — is a dodecagonal military watchtower in Seville, southern Spain.
According to rough estimates, Thrissur had around 3,000 gold jewellery-making units.
Thrissur’s date with gold began with Roman and Arab traders frequenting the now-lost port city of Muziris in Kodungallur. However, the economic liberalisation of the 1990s, the repealing of the Gold Control Act, and allowing Non-Resident Indians to bring in up to 5 kg of the precious yellow metal, adversely hit the goldsmiths.
(Edited by Sumavarsha Kandula, with inputs from Dileep V Kumar)
