Government’s big action on import of silver, now permission has to be taken before buying, many more major changes in rules

New Silver Import Policy in India: The Indian government had recently increased the import duty on gold and silver by 6 percent. Now the government has also taken a big decision regarding the import of Chanki. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has issued a new notification making the import of several categories of silver, including silver bars, ‘free’ Changed from ‘Restricted’ Has been put in the category. This means that now it will be necessary to obtain government approval for the import of these items.

According to the notification issued by DGFT, new conditions have been imposed on silver bars falling under ITC (HS) codes 71069221 and 71069229. Earlier, their import was ‘free’ under the rules of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Could have been done in category, but now these are ‘restricted’ Has been placed in the category.

Rules will apply to raw silver also

The government has increased strictness on the import of not only silver bars but also products like raw silver, semi-manufactured silver and silver powder. Now, relevant government permission will be required for importing these categories. However, in some cases imports have also been kept under RBI guidelines. This change has been made by amending the Import Policy Schedule under ITC (HS) classification.

Increase in import duty of gold and silver

This decision of the government has come at a time when the import bill of precious metals is continuously increasing in the country. The central government wants to reduce the pressure on foreign exchange by increasing monitoring of gold and silver imports.

Earlier, the government had increased the import duty on gold and silver from 6 percent to 15 percent. Additionally, rules for duty-free gold import under the Advance Authorization (AA) scheme for gems and jewelery exporters were also tightened.

What will change under the new rules?

Under the new rules, the government has set a limit of maximum 100 kg of gold import per license under the Advance Authorization Scheme. Physical inspection of manufacturing units has also been made mandatory for companies applying for the first time.

Moreover, new permission will be given only after fulfilling at least 50 percent export obligation under the old license. Exporters importing duty-free gold will now also have to submit import-export reports certified by chartered accountants every 15 days.

24 percent increase in gold imports

According to data released by the government, India’s gold imports increased by more than 24 percent to a record $ 71.98 billion in the financial year 2025-26. Although the volume of imports remained low, the total import bill increased due to the rise in international prices.

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Most of the gold imported into India was from Switzerland, while UAE and South Africa were the second and third largest sources. However, the government believes that these steps will better control the import of precious metals and help balance the country’s growing import bill.