According to price in international market, gold should have been priced at Rs 53,000 per tola (11.664grams) on Tuesday. But dealers fixed the price at Rs 53,500 per tola.[break]
Gold dealers said commercial banks such as Bank of Kanthmandu, Prime Bank and Siddhartha Bank have started selling gold to traders as per the quota system, which is 15 kg a day.
“Still commercial banks have not been able to fulfill the market demand,” Tej Ratna Shakya, president of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers´ Association (Negosida), told Republica on Tuesday. “Due to short supply and high demand, we are forced to sell the yellow metal at Rs 53,500 per tola even though price of gold came down in the international market on the day.”
Gold, which was priced at $1,734 per troy ounce (31.103 grams) in the international market on Monday, was traded at $1,720 per troy ounce on Tuesday.
“If international price is anything to go by, we should have brought down the price to Rs 53,000 per tola. But we have kept the price stable for the past two days because commercial banks are still unable to fix price in line with international market price,” Shakya added. “Also there is no uniformity in rates fixed by the importing commercial banks.”
Negosida had written to Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) about a month ago, pushing the central bank to raise gold import ceiling for commercial banks as well as allow the gold dealers import yellow metal through open general licenses (OGL).
“But the central bank is yet to respond to our demand because the government is not taking the issue seriously,” Shakya said, adding: “We have even asked the central bank to increase supply on seasonal basis if it cannot do so on regular basis.”
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