RBI forms committee to reduce gold import
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“RBI has formed a committee which will come out with its report in two to three months recommending how to contain the gold demand,” said RBI Deputy Governor Harun Rashid Khan here. While the oil import is 70 per cent of the domestic requirement, the gold import is 100 per cent, he said. However, he added that the gold import has now come down. On the volatility of the rupee-dollar exchange rate, Khan said, “We don’t target any exchange rate. Our approach is that there should be orderly movements and no volatility.”......
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Import and accumulation of huge quantities of gold in the form of jewellery have other social implications like under-utilisation of financial resources for productive uses and pledging of assets for raising funds which ultimately helps only the money lender in whatever attire he surfaces. In this context the present move by RBI deserves praise. In the absence of a system to check purity easily, a likelihood of individuals/families getting perennially ‘attached’ to a particular jewellery group cannot be ruled out. This is a possibility, as jewellery shops are yet to universally accept the current hall marking arrangement when it comes to gold bought from outside. One hopes the committee will also go into measures to discourage further accumulation of ‘ornament gold’ in households which is partly responsible for financial loss to middle class families in India and to some extent, dowry-related issues and security problems.
One way to get over the present rise in import not commensurate with the export of gold products is to link the quantum of import to the previous few years’ export record. Import of gold for pharmaceutical and other essential purposes could be outside such limits.
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