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Apex industry body Assocham on Friday urged the Finance Ministry to reduce duty on imported gold to five per cent from 10 per cent to check the unprecedented surge in gold smuggling through the porous borders of Nepal and Bangladesh.
Assocham Secretary-General DS Rawat said a heavy duty on gold imports results in a delay of 7-10 days in procurement of the yellow metal through legal channels which leads to huge loss for the domestic gems and jewellery industry.
“Gold smuggling is increasingly becoming lucrative as smuggling one kg of gold leads to net savings worth over ₹1.5 lakh through the legal channel,” he added.
Gold import duty in both Nepal and Bangladesh is nearly zero and the authorities there are not doing enough to clamp down on such malpractices. Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have witnessed a significant surge in gold imports since the Indian Government imposed restrictions on its imports, while China has surpassed India, becoming the world’s largest gold importer, he said.
Rawat also urged the Government to ease the 80:20 rule which requires at least a fifth of imported gold be exported or reinstate the gold-on-lease model which allowed credit purchases of imported gold.
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