Gold worth Rs. 1.34 crore seized at Mumbai airport

The gold was reportedly concealed in various items such as watch dial, pen refills, bra hooks, foils and handles of bag, coat hooks, shoe buckles and sandals.

Post By : IJ News Service On 02 January 2016 10:56 AM
India's biggest jewellers' association, All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF) has asked members to stop selling gold bars and coins, about 35 per cent of their business, adding its weight to government efforts to cut gold imports and curtail a distension current account deficit. “As a responsible trade body, we have requested our retailers not to sell gold coins or bars. We need to help the government to solve the CAD (current account deficit) problem. We have decided to take a proactive step to control the current account deficit situation. We have requested retailers to stop selling gold bars and coins for temporary period so that imports reduce," informed, Haresh Soni, Chairman, GJF. This call by GJF, which represents about 90 per cent of jewellers, came just days after financial services company Reliance Capital halted sales of its gold-backed funds. It is believed that the total sale of gold bars and coins were about 35 per cent of the total imports last year. If sale of these items are controlled, gold imports can be reduced by 10 to 15 per cent this year.%% GJF has membership of about 42,000 across India and they have responded positively to this call despite their concerns about the survival of the jewellery industry. India, the world's largest gold consumer, imported 860 tonnes of gold in 2012 calendar year. During January-March quarter, the country imported 215 tonnes of gold and about 350 tonnes of gold is expected to be imported during April-June quarter. The government has taken various steps to curb imports and improve the current account deficit situation. Recently, the import duty on gold was raised to 8 per cent from 6 per cent. The CAD, which is the difference between the inflow and outflow of foreign currency, is estimated to be at 5 per cent in 2012-13 fiscal. Huge gold import is one of the reasons for India's high CAD that touched 6.7 per cent of GDP in the October-December quarter.%% Haresh Soni said that the Federation will review the decision to stop sale of gold coins and bars after assessing the situation of import of the yellow metal and rupee value against US dollar. The jewellers move comes close on the heels of Reliance Capital suspending gold sales across all its businesses.%%

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