In a move to contain the surging current account deficit (CAD), Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that the government is looking at more steps to curb gold import, which has led to widening of the CAD. To check the gold imports, the government last week hiked duty on gold to 6% from 4% and also linked gold exchange traded fund (ETF) schemes offered by mutual funds to gold deposit schemes of banks with a view to increase availability of physical gold in the market.
As per the finance minister, these two schemes will unfreeze 15, 20 tonnes of gold, idle gold, and will bring it into the market to moderate imports. Even the Reserve Bank in its policy review on January on 29 raised concerns over the high gold import and widening CAD.
Moreover, the gold import was only second to oil and contributed to the CAD, which has widened to a record high of 5.4 per cent of GDP in the July-September quarter. Till December, India has imported gold worth $38 billion. In the last fiscal year, the gold import was at $56 billion.
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