The Indian government has significantly reduced the drawback rates on gold and silver jewellery exports in response to recent cuts in import duties on these metals.
According to a notification from the Department of Revenue, the drawback rate for gold jewelry has been decreased to Rs 335.5 per gram from Rs 704.1 per gram of net gold content. For silver jewelry and silver articles, the rate has been cut to Rs 4,468 per kilogram of net gold content.
The Duty Drawback Scheme refunds the import duties and internal taxes paid on goods imported for the manufacture of export products. The recent Budget reduced the import duty on gold and silver from 15% to 6%.
Ajay Sahai, Director General of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations, said, “duty drawback on gold and silver jewellery was reduced as the duty on gold and silver lowered in the budget”.
Gems and jewelry exports fell by 7.45% to USD 9.1 billion during April-July this fiscal year.
In the Union Budget, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced that customs duties on gold and silver will be reduced to 6% and platinum to 6.4%.