India’s gold import has dipped 24% to $23.22 billion in the April- February period of the last fiscal year, Art of Jewellery reports. Total import of gold in the corresponding period of 2015-16 totaled $30.71 billion.
On a month-on-month basis, gold import rose to $3.48 billion in February, compared to $1.4 billion in the same month last year, according to data released by the Commerce Ministry.
Earlier this month, it was reported that Indian gold jewelry exports routed through West Asia have suffered sharp drops in January and February of this year. The reasons: a 10% import duty on imported gold used mainly for making jewelry and a 5% import duty on jewelry levied by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) starting January 1, 2017. As a result, gold jewelry exports fell “more than 24% in January and 47.52% in February 2017”, a drop which constitutes “a major loss for India and gain for competitor China”.