Govt looking at gold policy: Finmin official

The government is working on an integrated gold policy, which is expected to be released soon, a senior finance ministry official said on Friday. The policy is aimed at promoting growth of the yellow metal industry and exports of jewellery.

Niti Aayog has submitted a detailed report on gold policy and it is being examined, Joint Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs Surinder Pal Singh said at an event here. "Government is definitely looking into it. Definitely there will be a gold policy," he said.

The domestic industry has demanded a cut in import duty on gold to 4 per cent from the current 12.5 per cent. Currently, there is no gold policy despite the fact that India is the largest consumer and importer of the precious metal.

The then finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced formulation of a comprehensive gold policy to develop the yellow metal as an asset class.