Commerce ministry urges the finance ministry to reduce import duty on gold to 2%
The Dollar Business Bureau The Commerce and Industry ministry has urged the Finance ministry to reduce the import duty on gold to 2% from 10%, to encourage the growth of Indian jewellery in the international market. This was revealed to the media by Manoj Dwivedi, Joint Secretary, Commerce ministry. India’s reducing trade deficit will also make it easy for the government to lower its import duty on bullion Dwivedi added. And with the reduction in import duty, gold’s rates would become cheaper, boosting demand thereby supporting global prices. It would also help keep a check on gold smuggling which many predict could increase after a hike in sales tax of gold jewellery beginning July 1. Dwivedi justified that since the current account deficit (CAD) ...
Reduction in import duty on gold needed to cut gold smuggling, Niti
The Dollar Business Bureau The government think-tank, Niti Aayog in its recent three-year action agenda draft has suggested that the government should reduce the import duty on gold. It should be recalled that since January 2012, the government had increased the duty through a series of measures to discourage the imports of the yellow metal and keep a check on the rising current account deficit (CAD) which was 4.8% of GDP in 2012-13. It was the decision of the then finance minister P Chidambaram to keep the CAD at 3.7% of the GDP. Subsequently, as part of its efforts, the government then had increased the customs duty on platinum and gold to 10% which was again increased to 15% in September ...
Gold import restrictions likely to spur smuggling
The Dollar Business Bureau | @TheDollarBiz India's gold imports in FY2013-14 have declined about 34% from previous year India’s Finance minister Arun Jaitley says that the duty on gold imports is unlikely to change until the current account deficit (CAD) improves further, which means that prices and smuggling of gold could rise sharply this year. Last year, the government increased the customs duty on gold to 10% to contain the current account deficit (CAD) which stood at around $88 billion or 4.7% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in FY2012-13. The trade balance improved during FY2013-14 and CAD declined to around $32.4 billion or 1.7% of GDP during 2013-14. High duties and other measures such as the 80:20 (export-import) rule ...
