People are buying a lot of gold before the festivals, imports doubled to $ 10.06 billion in August

Gold imports more than doubled to a record high of $ 10.06 billion in August due to a huge cut in customs duty and increased festive demand. According to data released by the Commerce Ministry, gold imports stood at $ 4.93 billion in the same period a year ago.

Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal, in his response to this record level of gold imports, said that the customs duty rates on gold have been cut drastically to reduce gold smuggling and other activities.

Barthwal told reporters here, "This is the time when jewelers start stocking their goods for sale during the festive season." In the budget for the financial year 2024-25, the government had announced to reduce the duty from 15 percent to six percent.

India's gold imports declined 4.23 percent to $ 12.64 billion in the first four months of the current financial year. The country's gold imports had surged by 30 percent to $ 45.54 billion in the last financial year 2023-24.

India gets the largest share of gold from Switzerland at about 40 percent. In second place is the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at over 16 percent share, followed by South Africa at about 10 percent share in third place.

This precious metal constitutes more than five percent of the country's total imports. The increase in gold imports widened the country's trade deficit-the difference between imports and exports- to $ 29.65 billion in August. India is the second largest consumer of gold in the world after China. This import mainly goes to meet the demand from the jewelry industry.