The government may take more steps if needed to curb gold inflows into the country, a senior finance ministry official said on Thursday.

Rajiv Takru, financial services secretary, said that India could not afford

the current levels of forex spending on gold imports, terming it as "wasteful expenditure," in comments to reporters at a banking conference in Mumbai.

The comments come a day after India increased import duty on gold by a third to 8 per cent and after the central bank acted earlier this week to force domestic jewellers to buy only on a cash basis.