Friday, 17th March 2006 (4311 views)

The Indian city of Mumbai has seen a drop in gold imports in 2006, despite its reputation as a major jewellery centre.

The figure of 148kg for the 11 months to February this year appears to be running significantly short of the 226kg of gold imports that arrived at the city's international airport in the full year 2004/2005.

The gold that passengers have been bringing into Mumbai this year has mainly been in gold bar form at 0.999 purity, an airport customs official told the Reuters news agency.

Mumbai has a higher sales tax than other Indian gold and jewellery centres such as Jaipur or Ahmedabad, while higher prices have also been cited as a cause of the decrease.

However, analysts expect that a forthcoming adjustment to the current taxation regime could count in Mumbai's future favour.

The government intends to broaden value-added tax to make it more uniform in the future.

 

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