Senior officials of Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Commerce and Supplies and NRB Tuesday informally agreed to authorize the central bank to handle the management of the precious yellow metal in the market until the new provision is put in place. [break]
“We have tentatively agreed to authorize NRB to handle the management of gold to end deepening uncertainty in the market which have encouraged smuggling of gold from India,” said an official after the meeting. The government has been losing a huge amount of revenue following the ban on gold imports.
The government had imposed the ban on gold import on September 3 after the ordinance introduced to authorize the government to raise customs duty on gold expired.
The government had introduced the ordinance in December last year after trade deficit widened to alarming level due to disproportionate gold imports. It allowed the government to increase customs on gold import to Rs 470 per 10 gram from Rs 130.
The government and the opposition parties are preparing to replace the existing bill to amend the Finance Act with a new one after it failed appease main opposition UCPN (Maoist).
Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers´ Association (Negosida) a few days ago had suggested the government to withdraw the recently released directives and increase the amount of gold that can be imported through hand-carry.
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