At a time the country’s economy is struggling and hordes of people are leaving in search of better opportunities, the arrival gate of the Tribhuvan International Airport has earned a new reputation for itself as the “gold gate”. The illegal import of the yellow metal via the airport shows no sign of abating, with gold running in several kilos confiscated from one smuggler or another, sometimes within days. On December 6, police seized almost 8 kg of smuggled gold from a gold shop in New Road; on December 7, 14 kg of gold was confiscated at the airport; and on December 8, another 2 kg was confiscated at the Thankot checkpost. Clearly, a much bigger amount of gold is being smuggled into Nepal than is being discovered. The man arrested with the 14-kg gold haul is reported to have visited Dubai several times, which possibly points to a larger problem that is escaping detention.

The gold hauls expose the rot within Nepal's bureaucracy and political leadership. Several top bureaucrats and leaders have been found to be involved in the smuggling cases. The government's record for punishing them has been dismal. Take, for instance, the case of Krishna Bahadur Mahara, a top leader of the ruling Maoist Centre, whose connection was established in the 9-kg gold smuggling case involving Chinese nationals. Despite Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also the chairman of the party, claiming to come down hard on corruption, he has failed to assure people that he is honest about punishing his tainted comrades—or leaders and cadres of other parties for that matter.

The government's apathy is one reason why smuggling continues despite widespread coverage of the cases. More often than not, the smuggling happens in cahoots with government officials. The confession by Chandra Ghale, the person arrested in relation to the 14-kg gold smuggling scam, points to that. Ghale confessed that he was just a "bhariya" (carrier) and was only tasked to leave the gold in a dustbin kept inside the airport's toilet. From there, Ghale said, sanitation workers stationed at the airport would pick up the gold and take it to its destination. It is inconceivable that sanitation workers at the airport would have the wherewithal to undertake such a big criminal operation without the active involvement of higher-ups in the airport and, by extension, the bureaucracy and political leadership.

The dysfunction in the detection system makes one wonder if this is done on purpose. Nothing else explains why an advanced system for the detection of contraband that China had gifted to Nepal all of two decades ago remains unused. Dilli Raj Acharya, head of the high-level committee formed on October 2 to suggest ways to control gold smuggling, has termed the dumping of the machines from China as 'inexcusable’. The fact that back in July over 60 kg of gold was confiscated in Sinamangal, much after it had been loaded into a taxi and taken out of the airport, shows that even such a big amount of the yellow metal had easily evaded TIA customs. In 2017, almost 100 kg of gold had been found to have been smuggled into Nepal in a single case, which came to light only after the gruesome murder of one of the smugglers. The government has been thinking of novel ways to promote Nepal abroad as a tourist- and investment-friendly destination. Much of that work will go to waste if the country instead comes to be seen as a smuggling heaven.