Govt hikes import tariff value of gold to $442 per 10 gram

31 Oct 2013 Evaluate

The government has hiked the import tariff value of gold to $442 per 10 gram from $418 in line with global prices of the precious metal amid rising gold supply in domestic market during the festival season. Tariff value or the base price is set to determine the customs duty on the precious metal and to prevent under invoicing. However, the import tariff value of silver has been kept unchanged at $699 per kg. 

At present, gold is being sold at a high premium in domestic market owing to the supply crunch caused by government's measures to restrict the import of precious metal in an effort to check country’s widening current account deficit (CAD). Rising gold import has become a cause of concern for the government as it remains second major factor after crude oil for high CAD, which widened to a record high of 4.9 percent of GDP in the April-June quarter, 2013. The government has set target to contain country’s CAD at 3.7 percent of GDP for the current fiscal.

Meanwhile, the government’s measures to contain the gold imports have started yielding as imports of gold and silver plunged more than 80% to $0.8 billion in September from $4.6 billion a year earlier. Recently, the RBI has introduced 80/20 rule under which 20% of all gold imports by jewellers have to be re-exported and the government has hiked gold imports rates to 15%. India’s gold import is likely to come down to between 800-850 tonnes in current fiscal from 950 tonnes in FY13 on the back of sharp hike in import duty by the government and restrictions put by the RBI.

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