Gold import must be placed under normal trading regime: FEAP

The Foreign Exchange Association of Pakistan (FEAP) has recommended that the special regime of importing gold through SRO 760

KARACHI (Scrap Monster):  The Foreign Exchange Association of Pakistan (FEAP) has recommended that the special regime of importing gold through SRO 760- the Import and Export of Precious Metals Jewellery and Gem stones order be discarded. Instead, the imports of gold must be placed under normal trading regime, the Association recommended.

The country’s Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) had directed the Ministry of Commerce to re-examine the issue by consultations with all relevant stakeholders. Accordingly a meeting was convened last week, which was attended by senior officials of Foreign Exchange Association of Pakistan (FEAP), Gems and Jewellery Association and All Pakistan Commercial Exporters Association apart from senior government officials.

The FEAP briefed the ECC that the special regime of importing gold under Entrustment and Self-Consignment Schemes, governed through SRO 760 may be abandoned. It recommended to put import of gold under normal trading regime under the State Bank of Pakistan’'s Foreign Exchange Regulations. The meeting also proposed that requirement of notarization of gold contracts may be done away with. Henceforth, exporters of gemstones need not be registered with Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP). The ban on gold import under SRO 760 for commercial importers was also lifted.

Further, the ECC allowed extension of ban on import of gold under SRO 760 upto March 31, 2014.