Government hikes import duty on gold, silver

Government hikes import duty on gold, silver to defend rupee

New Delhi: The import duty on gold was on Tuesday hiked to 10 per cent from 6 per cent, in a bid to defend the sliding rupee.

The government also hiked the import duty on silver and other non-essential items.

The import duty on silver was hiked by 10 per cent from 6 per cent earlier.

The excise duty on gold bars was also increased to 9 per cent from 7 per cent.

In order to contain the sliding value of rupee and the widening current account deficit or CAD, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday had said he would announce steps to compress demand of gold, silver, oil and non-essential items.

Mr Chidambaram had also said the notifications effecting changes in the duty rates would be tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.

Besides changes in import duty structure, the Finance Minister on Monday had announced other measures including easier overseas borrowing norms to fetch an additional $11 billion during the current fiscal to rescue the rupee and contain the burgeoning CAD to $70 billion or 3.7 per cent of the GDP or gross domestic product.

CAD touched all all-time high of 4.8 per cent of the GDP in 2012-13.

The rupee, on account of various domestic and global factors, had slipped to 61.80 to a dollar earlier in the month.