MUMBAI: Leading bullion refiners and traders have alerted tax authorities about imports of articles of gold such as spoons, bowls, glasses from South Korea and Indonesia, which is unsettling the trade.
Unscrupulous traders are importing these articles of 99 per cent purity at 0.96 per cent duty from South Korea, and to a lesser extent Indonesia, under the Indo-Asean Free Trade Agreement, melting them into bullion and selling them at the prevailing market rate, which includes 10 per cent customs duty. They make a neat 9 per cent gain in the bargain.
This has prompted MMTC Pamp, one of the country's largest gold refiners, and Bullion Federation of India, comprising leading bullion dealers, among others to alert the Central Board of Excise and Customs to "inadvertent outcomes of Agreements" being misused and causing revenue loss to the government. ET has reviewed the letter dated August 22 to chairman, CBEC.
A sizeable portion of such items is through Delhi Air Cargo. Rajesh Khosla, MD, MMTC-Pamp, said an estimated 1 tonne every 10 days was being imported into India from the two countries. South Korea is a signatory to the FTA and a gold producer.
India on average imports 800 tonnes of gold each year.
The traders moved to importing articles of gold from gold jewellery after the government in the Budget for FY17 imposed a 12.5 per cent duty on imported jewellery to check the misuse of the FTA with Indonesia.
Source: - Economictimes.indiatimes.com
