Additional gold curbs coming soon, says govt

The government may take more steps if needed to curb gold inflows into India, a Rajiv Takru, financial services secretary, on Thursday.

The government may take more steps if needed to curb gold inflows into India, a Rajiv Takru, financial services secretary, on Thursday.

India could not afford the current levels of foreign exchange spending on gold imports, terming it as “wasteful expenditure,” he added.

The comments come a day after the government increased import duty on gold by a third to 8% and after the Reserve Bank of India acted earlier this week to force domestic jewellers to buy only on a cash basis.

Earlier in the day, finance minister P Chidambaram had said the surging imports were unsustainable and advised banks to tell customers not to invest in the precious metal.

“Banks have a role to play in dampening the enthusiasm for gold... I would urge all banks to advise their branches that they should not encourage their customers to invest in or buy gold,” said Chidambaram.

The RBI has “advised banks they should not sell gold coins... I hope a day will come when we regard gold as any other metal.”

(With PTI & Reuters inputs)