More Banks Importing Gold Can Bring Down Prices: KC Chakrabarty
Only six banks and three financial institutions were allowed to import gold under the 80:20 scheme.
Chakrabarty, however, asserted that there has been no revision in the policy governing gold imports.
"The issue is that the scheme remains the same. I think the scheme is the same," he said.
Due to the import restrictions, gold and silver imports declined 71.4 per cent to $1.63 billion in February. Imports of gold and silver in February 2013 stood at $5.24 billion. In January this year, they were $1.72 billion.
India is the second largest importer of gold, which is mainly utilised to meet the demand of the jewellery industry. Imports stood at about 830 tonnes in 2012-13.
Faced with intense pressure to relax gold import curbs, the government had said it would review the decision after getting final figures of CAD.
Recent data releases showing a reduction in the CAD, driven mainly by the squeeze on the gold front, and also the reports on increase in smuggling, have led to murmurs of a drawback of the extraordinary measures.
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