Gold trade to glitter as govt plans easy import norms

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New Delhi: terms of tonnage, it jumped from 190 tonne from July-September 2007 to 250 tonne in the same period this fiscal. Interestingly, the surge in gold imports is not translating into an equivalent rise in exports, despite stable domestic consumption.

Meanwhile, citing shortage of gold in several parts of the country, gold jewellery exporters have been demanding that registered exporters of gems and jewellery should be allowed to import gold directly.

“Many exporters in the country are not able to get gold on time to be used in jewellery export items and due to this gold jewellery export in the last quarter saw a decline of 27% over the same period last year.

This is forcing some of them to reduce workforce. To ensure that there is no shortage of the commodity; major exporters in our sector should be allowed to import gold.

The government can make it mandatory that such recognized export houses should use the imported gold only for export purposes,” said Vasant Mehta, Chairman, GJPEC.

However, several others are not ready to buy the claim of exporters that that there is a shortage of gold in the domestic market.

Ashish Mundhra of Mundhra Bullion said, “For a short period of time, international suppliers were not able to supply to the demand. But that was a temporary phase. Currently there is no shortage.”