New Restrictions For Gold Imports Announced: What The Govt Said?

The central government on Thursday tightened rules for importing gold into the country while imposing a limit of 100 kg on gold imports under the Advance Authorisation scheme, which allows jewellery exporters to import raw or input materials at zero duty.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday requested Indians to stop buying gold for a year to help reduce foreign exchange outflows and ease import pressure. Framing the request as a “national responsibility” amid global economic turbulence and a West Asia crisis that has sent oil prices soaring, the PM’s message was clear, reducing gold imports is essential to protecting India’s foreign exchange reserves.

On Wednesday, the government doubled import tariffs on gold and silver, in an effort to defend

the rupee amid the war in West Asia.

The government has tightened conditions for the issuance and monitoring of advance authorisation for import of gold. The Advance Authorization (AA) Scheme allows duty free import of gold for export purposes.

According to officials, the import duty on gold has now been increased to 15%. They further said that to prevent the misuse of AA scheme, the government has issues a list of instructions.

The instructions include a cap of 100kg per AA, physical inspection of manufacturing facility before issuance for new applicants, complation of 50% exports in past authorizations before issuance of subsequent authorization (else they may apply multiple authorizations to manage the cap), fortnightly report on import/export by AA holder and monthly report by Regional Office on AAs issued, import/exports.

According to a report by Reuters, gold discounts in India went above $200 an ounce on Wednesday, reaching a new record.