Gold imports, which have a bearing on the country’s current account deficit (CAD), fell 8.86 per cent to USD 27 billion (about Rs 1.90 lakh crore) during April-February period of the current financial year, according to commerce ministry data.

Imports of the yellow metal stood at USD 29.62 billion in the corresponding period of 2018-19.

The decline in gold imports has helped in narrowing the country’s trade deficit to USD 143.12 billion during April-February period of the current fiscal, as against USD 173 billion a year ago.

Gold imports had been recording negative growth since December last year.

India is the largest importer of gold, which mainly caters to the demand of the jewellery industry.

In volume terms, the country imports 800-900 tonnes of gold annually.

To mitigate the negative impact of gold imports on the trade deficit and CAD, the government increased the import duty on the metal to 12.5 per cent from 10 per cent.

Industry experts claim that businesses in the sector are shifting their manufacturing bases to neighbouring countries due to the high duty.

Gems and jewellery exporters had asked for a reduction in import duty to 4 per cent.

Gems and jewellery exports declined 8.25 per cent to USD 33.78 billion in April-February this fiscal.

The country’s gold imports dipped by 3 per cent in value terms to USD 32.8 billion in 2018-19.

The CAD, which is the difference between inflow and outflow of foreign exchange, narrowed to 0.9 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) or USD 6.3 billion in July-September 2019, from 2.9 per cent of GDP or USD 19 billion in the corresponding period last year, according to the Reserve Bank’s data.

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