Guidelines on Import of Gold by Nominated Banks / Agencies issued by RBI

RBI/2014–15/474 A.P. (DIR Series) Cir­cu­lar No.79

Feb­ru­ary 18, 2015

Atten­tion of Autho­rised Deal­er Cat­e­go­ry – I (AD Cat­e­go­ry – I) banks is invit­ed to the pro­vi­sions con­tained in A.P.(DIR Series) Cir­cu­lar No.42 dat­ed Novem­ber 28, 2014 in terms of which the 20:80 scheme for import of gold was with­drawn in con­sul­ta­tion with the Government .

2. The Reserve Bank of India and the Gov­ern­ment has been receiv­ing requests for clar­i­fi­ca­tion on some of the oper­a­tional aspects of the guide­lines on import of gold con­se­quent upon the with­draw­al of 20:80 scheme. Accord­ing­ly, in con­sul­ta­tion with the Gov­ern­ment, the fol­low­ing clar­i­fi­ca­tions are issued:

(i) The oblig­a­tion to export under the 20:80 scheme will con­tin­ue to apply in respect of unutilised gold import­ed before Novem­ber 28, 2014, i.e., the date of abo­li­tion of the 20:80 scheme.

(ii) Nom­i­nat­ed banks are now per­mit­ted to import gold on con­sign­ment basis. All sale of gold domes­ti­cal­ly will, how­ev­er, be against upfront pay­ments. Banks are free to grant gold met­al loans.

(iii) Star and Pre­mier Trad­ing Hous­es (STH/PTH) can import gold on DP basis as per enti­tle­ment with­out any end use restrictions.

(iv) While the import of gold coins and medal­lions will no longer be pro­hib­it­ed, pend­ing fur­ther review, the restric­tions on banks in sell­ing gold coins and medal­lions are not being removed.

3. AD Cat­e­go­ry –I banks may bring the con­tents of this cir­cu­lar to the notice of their con­stituents and cus­tomers concerned.

4. The direc­tions con­tained in this cir­cu­lar have been issued under Sec­tion 10 (4) and Sec­tion 11 (1) of the For­eign Exchange Man­age­ment Act (FEMA), 1999 (42 of 1999) and are with­out prej­u­dice to per­mis­sions / approvals, if any, required under any oth­er law.

Yours faith­ful­ly,

(B. P. Kanungo)

Prin­ci­pal Chief Gen­er­al Manager

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