Gold, Silver Rate Today Live Updates: Gold, silver prices up in domestic market on import duty measure; set for weekly decline in international markets
India, the world’s second-largest consumer of gold after China, largely imports the precious metal to meet demand from the jewellery sector. These purchases result in a significant outflow of foreign exchange.
Under the duty revisions announced on Wednesday, the government doubled the basic customs duty on gold to 10%, while the agriculture infrastructure and development cess (AIDC) was increased five times from 1% to 5%. As a result, the effective import duty on both gold and silver now stands at 15%.
In addition, importers are required to pay a 3% Integrated GST (IGST), pushing the overall tax incidence to 18.45%, compared with 9.18% earlier.
India’s gold imports climbed more than 24% in 2025-26 to touch a record USD 71.98 billion. However, in terms of quantity, imports declined 4.76% during the year to 721.03 tonnes.
