The government will consider relaxing curbs on gold import once the fiscal situation becomes more comfortable, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said.
"Not at the moment (easing curbs on import of gold)...if our situation gives me more comfort level, obviously these are flexible polices. They are not engraved in stone that you can't change them," he said in a interview to PTI.
He, however, added that the government has to be careful on current account deficit and fiscal deficit.
"On both CAD (current account deficit) and fiscal deficit, I think we will have to be cautious and careful," he said.
In order to check rising current account deficit, the government had raised import duties on the yellow metal to 10 per cent while the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed curbs on import of gold and also laid down various pre-conditions for inward shipments of the precious metal.
As a result of combined efforts, imports of gold have been declining. They fell 72 per cent to $2.19 billion in May due to restrictions imposed by the government.
India's current account deficit, which is the excess of foreign exchange outflows over inflows, touched a historic high of 4.7 per cent of GDP in 2012-13, mainly due to rising imports of gold and petroleum products.
During 2013-14, the current account deficit sharply narrowed to or $32.4 billion, or 1.7 per cent of GDP.
For the January-March quarter, the current account deficit stood at $1.2 billion, or 0.2 per cent of GDP, as against $18.1 billion (3.6 per cent) in the same period of the previous fiscal year, according to the RBI.
The highest ever current account deficit reported in 2013-14 had led to a slew of problems, including a heavy drop in the value of rupee, which touched an all-time low of 68.85 against the US dollar last August.
However, it has strengthened since then and is hovering around the Rs 60 mark.
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