New Delhi, July 1 (Agency) Seeking to contain current account deficit (CAD), the government has raised customs duty on gold from 10.75% to 15%.”The surge in gold imports is putting pressure on current account deficit. To curb import of gold, customs duty has been increased from present 10.75% to 15%,” said Finance Ministry on Friday.There has been sudden surge in imports of gold. In the month of May, a total of 107 tonnes of gold was imported and in June also the imports have been significant.
As per trade data released by Commerce Ministry last month, gold import stood at $6.02 billion in May 2022, a jump of 789% over May 2021 when gold import value totalled $677 million. In another significant move, the Centre has imposed cess on crude oil produced domestically to take away the windfall gains being made by the local players. “The domestic crude producers sell crude to domestic refineries at international parity prices. As a result, the domestic crude producers are making windfall gains.
Taking this into account, a cess of Rs 23,250 per tonne has been imposed on crude,” the Finance Ministry said. The Ministry added that import of crude would not be subject to this cess. As per the official statement, the imposition of this cess will have no adverse impact, whatsoever, on domestic petroleum products/fuel prices. Further, small producers, whose annual production of crude in the preceding financial year is less than 2 million barrels will be exempt from this cess. “Also, to incentivise an additional production over preceding year, no cess will be imposed on such quantity of crude that is produced in excess of last year production by a crude producer,” the Ministry said.