Lack of coordination among more than 30 government authorities present at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) has led to rampant smuggling, stakeholders have said.

They have suggested revision of security check procedure, upgradation of technology and supervision and management of TIA-based staff to check illegal trade through one of the country’s major customs points.

Independent units of various government agencies such as Nepal Police, Customs Department, Inland Revenue Department, Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), Revenue Investigation Department, National Investigation Department, Civil Aviation Authority Nepal and Nepal Tourism Board, among others, are currently based at TIA.

On Thursday, CIB of Nepal Police confiscated 33kg gold from TIA that had passed undetected through the customs. A CIB team had arrested Gopal Bahadur Shahi, who had landed at TIA from the UAE in an Air Arabia flight, in possession of the precious yellow metal. Shahi was arrested after he had already made his way out of the airport.

The seizure of such a huge amount of gold has raised questions over the security situation at the country’s only international airport.

Speaking at the Parliamentary Finance Committee meeting held here on Tuesday, Deputy Inspector General of Police Nawaraj Silwal, chief of CIB, underscored the need for effective coordination among staffers working at TIA and upgradation of security check system and technology.

“It is not just a gold smuggling incident. It is rather related to national security,” Silwal said.

Inefficiency of TIA-based staff, poor infrastructure such as scanners, and irresponsible staffers are often blamed for flourishing smuggling through TIA.

According to Nepal Police, it seized smuggled gold worth Rs300 million in the last fiscal year from customs points across the country. The seizure amounted to Rs770 million in 2014-15. In the first five months this fiscal year, contrabands, majority of which were gold and vehicles, worth Rs260 million were seized.

“In most cases, carriers of contrabands are arrested, while actual players remain behind the scene,” said Inspector General of Police Upendra Kant Aryal. “In organised crime like gold smuggling, there is a need for carrying out in-depth investigation to nab the actual players.”

Involvement of TIA-based staff has been found in a number of cases of smuggling through the TIA customs. There are 37 customs officials working for the TIA customs management. Unlike other government offices where the staffers are transferred every two years, many customs officials posted at TIA have been working for years.

Shishir Kumar Dhungana, director general of the Customs Department, said they were planning to replace the existing officials with new ones. “For the purpose, we are providing training to customs officials for specific jobs like scanning,” he said.

Dhungana said the department was installing a whole-body scanner at TIA at an investment of Rs119.5 million as the traditional x-ray machine is unable to detect the goods wrapped in black-colour materials. “We have called for tender to install the full imaging device,” he said.

Revenue Secretary Rajan Khanal said remittance could have been used for illegal import of gold given remittance inflow into the country has slowed down.