India Hiked Import Duty on Gold Coins to 12.5%

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The Indian Finance Ministry, in its latest budget presented on February 1, 2020, has raised the import duty on gold coins from 10% to 12.5%. This makes the import duty on gold coins on par with that of gold bullion.

The import duty hike comes as part of government’s efforts to curb imports of gold coins into the country. Incidentally, the imports had witnessed substantial jump in the last three months of the previous year. As per data, the country’s demand for gold coins and bars surged higher to 45 tonnes in the three-month period ending Dec ’19. This compares with the demand of 22 tonnes in the prior quarter. Meantime, the annual gold bar and coin demand in India has dropped by almost 10% from 162 tonnes in 2018 to 145 tonnes last year.

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The World Gold Council observed that the government has corrected the duty anomaly by increasing the import duty on gold coins.

Also, the government has imposed 0.5% import duty on rough coloured gemstones, rough semi-precious gemstones and pre-forms of precious and semi-precious gemstones. Reacting to the hike, Gem and Jewellery Exports Promotion Council of India noted that the duty would upset the export of gemstones. The Council urged the government to roll back the proposed duty.

Meantime, the government did not respond to long-pending demand by the industry to lower import duty on gold bullion imports.