New Delhi: India has witnessed a sharp decline in gold imports following the government’s decision to increase customs duty on the precious metal, according to a senior Finance Ministry official.<\/p>\n
The official said gold imports have dropped by nearly 70%, with monthly imports now estimated at around 25-30 tonnes. Before the duty hike, India was importing between 75 and 100 tonnes of gold every month.<\/p>\n
The government recently raised customs duty on gold to 15%, more than doubling the previous rate. The move has significantly affected both demand and import volumes.<\/p>\n
Despite the decline in physical imports, the overall value of gold imports has increased due to higher international prices. In May, the value of gold imports rose 34% year-on-year to $3.41 billion.<\/p>\n
During the first two months of FY2026-27, April and May, the value of gold imports surged 60.14% to $9.04 billion. In FY2025-26, India\u2019s gold import bill had reached a record $71.98 billion, up 24% from the previous year, although import volumes declined 4.76% to 721.03 tonnes.<\/p>\n
India remains the world\u2019s second-largest consumer of gold after China, with strong demand from the jewellery sector driving large-scale imports.<\/p>\n
Government officials believe the higher duty will help reduce pressure on foreign exchange reserves by discouraging non-essential imports. The move comes amid efforts to prioritise foreign currency spending on critical imports such as crude oil, fertilisers, industrial raw materials and capital goods.<\/p>\n
According to the Finance Ministry, precious metals account for more than 5% of India\u2019s total imports. Policymakers have also expressed concern that geopolitical uncertainties and volatility in global commodity markets could further increase the country\u2019s import bill if demand for gold remains elevated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi: India has witnessed a sharp decline in gold imports following the government’s decision to increase customs duty on the precious metal, according to a senior Finance Ministry official. The official said gold imports have dropped by nearly 70%, with monthly imports now estimated at around 25-30 tonnes. Before the duty hike, India was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":66921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,37],"tags":[15991,15992,15990,15993],"class_list":["post-66920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-national","tag-70-after","tag-customs-duty-hike","tag-gold-imports-plunge","tag-government-says"],"yoast_head":"\n