The government on Saturday issued an order imposing restrictions on silver imports to curb soaring imports of the precious metal, reduce the trade deficit and support the rupee amid mounting external pressures. This comes after the government raised import duties on gold and silver to 15% and later tightened compliance with gold import norms.
According to an order issued by the Ministry of Trade and Industry on Saturday, the import policy for silver bullion, including silver alloyed with gold and platinum, containing 99.9 percent or more silver by weight, has been revised from “Free” to “Restricted”. The same has been revised for the ‘other’ silver bar category.
However, this was “subject to Policy Condition No. 7 of Chapter 71 of ITC (HS) 2022, Schedule – I (Import Policy) with immediate effect,” according to an order signed by the Director General of Foreign Trade and Commerce.
The order read: “In exercise of the powers conferred by section 3 and section 5 of the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992 read with paragraph 1.02 and 2.01 of the Foreign Trade Policy 2023, as amended from time to time, the Central Government hereby amends the import policy of ITC Code (HS) under 71076106 ITC1 and Chapter 2992 ITC1 (HS) 2022, Schedule – I (Import Policy) with immediate effect.’
Goods in the restricted category require a government license to import.
Earlier steps of the government | In points
1. On May 13, the government increased the import duty on precious metals from 6 percent to 15 percent. This reversed the 2024 tariff reduction. The Treasury announced the changes through several tariff notices on 12 May. The revised rates came into effect on May 13.
According to the announcement, the government has increased the basic duty on several categories of gold and silver imports to 10% from 5%, while the Agricultural Infrastructure and Development Tax (AIDC) of 5% remains in place, taking the total effective import tax to 15%.
2. Earlier this month, the government tightened compliance standards for gold imports under the advance authorization system, introducing stricter quantity limits, physical verification requirements and regular reporting obligations amid increased scrutiny of precious metal imports.
In a notification, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said that Advance Authorization (AA) for the import of gold “will be issued within the maximum permitted quantity of 100 kilograms”. Earlier, there was no limit on the import of gold under the Advance Authorization (AA) system, which allows duty-free import of gold for export purposes.
Mint had earlier quoted a government official as saying that the stricter norms were introduced after the import duty on gold was raised to 15% due to concerns that the system could be misused for “price arbitrage”.
