In a move to curb imports of gold and other precious metal jewellery from Asean countries especially Thailand, the government Wednesday restricted their imports, which were “free” earlier. Jewellery studded with pearls, diamonds and other precious metals will now require a license to be imported except those units located in SEZs and Export Oriented Units provided such imported goods are not sold into the Domestic Tarifff Area, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade said.In February, the government had restricted the imports of certain articles of platinum to curb illicit platinum blended with significant amounts of gold.“The import policy as amended above shall come into force with immediate effect and shall apply irrespective of any prior contract, irrevocable letter of credit, advance payment, or shipment status,” DGFT said in a notification.Last year, the government imposed import restrictions on platinum alloy with less than 99% purity to curb illicit imports of this precious metal blended with significant amounts of gold to exploit the tariff differential between gold and platinum“With this, all gold, silver and platinum jewellery imports are restricted. All loopholes due to zero duty imports from Asean under the free trade pact are now under license,” said an industry representativeThe most favoured nation duty on these goods is 20% and under the trade pact with the UAE, it is 17%, However, these products are imported duty-free from the 10-member Asean.Read more at:https://economictimes.indiatimes.com//industry/cons-products/fashion-/-cosmetics-/-jewellery/india-restricts-precious-metal-jewellery-imports/articleshow/129957921.cms (ICE MUMBAI)

Fonte notizia: The Economic Times