: Thursday, December 24, 2020, 7:49 AM IST
Policy watch: A sightless government isnât even aware where gold is and in what forms
Photo: Pixabay
Indians love gold. And India ends up importing around 700-800 tonnes of gold on an average. Each tonne means a domestic market value of Rs.500 crore, and the imported gold would therefore mean an annual outgo of foreign exchange of at least Rs.350,000 crore. On an average around 100 tonnes of gold gets smuggled in. That could mean clandestine erosion of the value of the Indian rupee by Rs.50,000 crore.
One way to mitigate both is by having more sensible gold import and export policies, thereby reducing smuggling and all related ills.