Media: India to buy 160 tonnes of gold from UAE in 2024-2025
India intends to purchase up to 160 tonnes of gold from the United Arab Emirates in the current 2024-2025 financial year (it began on April 1st) at a preferential tariff rate of 1 percent in accordance with the tariff quota (TRQ), TASS reports
The PTI Agency, citing sources in the Indian Council of Ministers, reported that gold imports will be carried out in accordance with the comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement between the two countries, which entered into force on May 1st, 2022. It implies India's annual purchases of 200 tonnes of gold in the UAE. In the 2023-2024 financial year, Indian imports of this precious metal from the UAE increased by 147.6 percent (to 140 tonnes) and amounted to $7.6bn compared to $3bn in the previous financial year.
According to New Delhi reports, in the last financial year, India increased gold imports, the total volume of which increased by 30 percent and amounted to $45.54bn. In April-July 2024, Indian foreign purchases of gold decreased by 4.23 percent, to $12.64bn, due to global economic uncertainty. To increase imports, the authorities reduced the customs duty on gold and silver from 15 percent budgeted to 6 percent.
Switzerland is the largest exporter of gold to India: it accounts for about 40 percent of the total volume of purchases of this metal by the republic, followed by the UAE (more than 16 percent) and South Africa (about 10 percent).
India buys up to 900 tonnes of gold annually on the world market, and the metal accounts for more than 5 percent of the country's total imports.
