FM favours continuation of curbs on gold imports

Notwithstanding the likelihood of CAD narrowing to less than $50 billion, Finance Minister P Chidambaram today made a case for continuing some kind of restriction on gold imports.

“I think there should be some restraint on gold imports. We should also attempt to discover more gold in our own country,” he said in an interview to a tv channel.

Referring to a recent Supreme Court judgement on auction of all closed mines, he said the Mines Ministry should sell “the so-called closed mines because there are persons around the world who have met me and said, ‘Give us the mines and we would be able to extract gold’.” He said, “As a proposition, restraining gold imports is a correct move.”

However, some experts have favoured doing away with curbs on gold imports because they lead to smuggling.