THE Government has reduced the drawback rates on exports of gold and silver jewellery by more than half to adjust for the significant cutin import duties on these precious metals in the Budget. A notificationregarding this was issued by the Department of Revenue. On the export of gold jewellery, the drawback rate has been brought down to Rs 335.5 from Rs 704.1 per gram of net goldcontentinthe article.The rateof silver jewellery andarticles of silver have been cut to Rs4,468 per kilogram of net gold content in an article.

 

The Duty Drawback Scheme refunds import duties and internal taxes, which are paid while importing goods, which are, in turn, used for manufacturingproducts forexports. In the Budget, the import duty ongold andsilverto 6 per cent from 15 per cent. Through this notification, “duty drawback on gold and silver jewellery was reduced as the dutyongoldandsilverlowered in the Budget,” Federation of Indian Export Organisations Director General Ajay Sahai said. The gems and jewellery exports during April-July this fiscal contracted by 7.45 per cent to USD 9.1 billion.