June 3, 2016
A recent investigation by Times of Assam has revealed that there is a big scam in the Diamond Industry of India. Diamonds worth millions of Dollars are being shipped across the borders illegally under the nose of Authorities to other South Asian Countries such as Thailand, from where it is being sold to Western Markets. This is done because Thailand is having very weak policy on Custom Duty on export of Diamonds, which is not mined in the country.
Times of Assam have reports of such Bangkok based diamond smuggling trade being mostly originating from Mumbai & Surat of Gujarat which is one of the biggest Diamond hubs in the country. It is learnt that Diamonds are being sent across to Thailand and Hong Kong from traders using Hawala network from where these are further shipped and sold legally from Thailand & Hong Kong. A large number of Indian traders living and doing business in Bangkok are involved in this smuggling trade. Most of these Bangkok living Indian diamond traders use top get diamonds through their smuggling network in Surat. And then they sell the diamonds via open Marketplaces like eBay & Etsy. As eBay & Etsy don’t cover the policy to verify such of this information, they have nothing to do even if the items being sold via their vendors are smuggled or genuinely obtained. Those who buy such diamonds, have no interest to know how the Indian diamond reached to Thailand. The buyers are happy buying those diamonds from Thailand for too cheap price in comparison to buying from India.