FM hopes gold will one day be copper

Jun 07, 2013 |

A day after the government raised the import duty on gold to eight per cent, finance minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday said the surging imports are unsustainable and advised banks to tell customers not to invest in the precious metal.

“Banks have a role to play in dampening the enthusiasm for gold... I would urge all banks to please advise their branches that they should not encourage their customers to invest in or buy gold,” he said at the annual meeting of the Indian Banks’ Association.
The Reserve Bank, Mr Chidambaram said, has already “advised banks they should not sell gold coins... I hope a day will come when we regard gold as any other metal, it just shines a little more than copper or bronze.”
In view of spiralling gold imports putting huge pressure on the current account deficit, the government had on Wednesday hiked the import duty on gold and platinum to eight per cent, up by two per cent. This was the second duty hike in six months.

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