India to review gold tax but import duty to stay

The Indian government has said it will review a new tax on gold jewellery, after 11 days of protests by gold shop owners.

Shops have been closed in some parts of India since the levy was announced in the federal budget on 16 March.

However authorities said they would not budge on an import duty hike from 2% to 4%.

India is the biggest importer of gold in the world.

In 2011 India imported 933 tonnes of gold, according to the World Gold Council.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the government would reconsider its 0.3% so called excise tax on gold jewellery because it did not want to harass the industry.

Source: World Gold Council

However he added that the import duty would stay because Indians were spending "precious foreign exchange" to buy gold.

The high gold imports have weakened the rupee against the major global currencies.

Source & Image : BBC