Government on Tuesday hiked the
import duty on gold, silver and platinum to 10 per cent in order to contain sliding value of rupee and widening Current Account Deficit.
The import duty hike will give Rs 4,830 crore to the government in the remaining period of the fiscal.
"...the basis customs duty on standard gold and platinum (increased) from 8 per cent to 10 per cent and on silver from 6 per cent to 10 per cent", said a notification issued by the Finance Ministry.
The government has also raised the duty on gold ore/ concentrates/dore bars and silver dore bars ranging from 7 per cent to 10 per cent.
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had on Monday
announced other measures including easier overseas borrowing norms to fetch an additional $11 billion this fiscal to rescue rupee and contain the burgeoning CAD to $70 billion or 3.7 per cent of the GDP.
CAD touched all all time high of 4.8 per cent of the GDP in 2012-13.
The rupee, on account of various domestic and global factors, had slipped to 61.80 to a dollar earlier in the month.
Special 
