About 140 tons of gold will be imported from UAE by paying low duty

Mumbai: Under the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, India will import 140 tonnes of gold from the United Arab Emirates in 2023-24 at concessional duty rates. The government has started a new window for this. Gold tariff rate quotas will be allocated to new and old applicants as per revised simplified eligibility norms and reduced compliance burden for Indian importers, government sources said.

It was also claimed that there would be no significant difference in India's revenue through duty due to the relaxation in duty.

The agreement between India and the UAE came into effect on May 1 last year, according to which India will be able to import 140 tonnes of gold at the most favored nation rate or 1 percent duty concession applicable in the financial year 2023-24. The effective import duty on gold is 15 percent.

The matter was taken into consideration by the government and a notification scrapping the jewelery manufacturer standard was issued at the end of March. Under the trade agreement, the UAE will provide zero duty market access for gold jewelery exports from India in exchange for a tariff rate quota for gold.

The tariff rate quota which was 110 tonnes of gold in the last financial year has been increased to 140 tonnes for the current financial year and will be taken up to a maximum of 200 tonnes at a concessional duty rate of only 1 per cent in five years.

In FY 2023, India's total gold imports fell by 24 percent to $35 billion.