Jewellery Associations To Meet PMO Officials On May 12: Report

Jewellery associations will meet officials of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) tomorrow, Tuesday, May 12, sources have told CNBC-TV18. It comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed to citizens to pause gold buying for a year.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing the Hyderabad rally, had urged citizens to reduce unnecessary consumption, postpone discretionary spending such as gold purchases and foreign travel for a year, adopt energy-saving measures and promote domestic products.

PM Modi’s appeal comes at a time when India is facing rising external pressures on its forex reserves due to elevated global commodity prices and growing uncertainty in international supply chains. India’s forex reserves dropped by $7.794

billion to $690.693 billion during the week ended May 1.

India remains heavily dependent on imports for gold, crude oil, edible oils and fertilisers, making the economy vulnerable to global commodity shocks and currency pressures during periods of geopolitical instability.

India is one of the world’s largest consumers of gold. The country consumes around 700-800 tonnes of gold every year but produces barely 1-2 tonnes domestically. This means India depends on imports for more than 90 per cent of its gold requirement.

Also, gold imports do not significantly contribute to industrial production or exports at a large scale. However, they require massive outflows of foreign currency.

India’s gold imports surge to a record $72 billion in the financial year 2025-26, a 24 per cent jump compared with $58 billion in FY25.

Gold accounts for nearly 9 per cent of India’s total import bill, making it one of the country’s largest import categories after crude oil. Currently, India imposes an effective import tax of around 6 per cent, including customs duty and other levies.