India's gold imports surged 81.69 percent year-on-year to $5.62 billion in April, driven by high prices of the precious metal, though imports may decline in the coming months following the government's sharp increase in customs duty on the yellow metal.
According to the commerce ministry data, silver imports jumped 157.16 percent to $411 million during the month under review.
Gold imports rose 24 percent to hit an all-time high of $71.98 billion in 2025-26. In volume terms, however, the imports dipped 4.76 percent to 721.03 tonnes.
The government has increased import duty on precious metals from 6 percent to 15 percent effective May 13.
"With the higher import duty on gold and silver, there will definitely be some impact in terms of lower imports during the year. We need to wait and watch how much it will be," commerce secretary Rajesh Agrawal told reporters in New Delhi.
However, in the case of silver, the impact of a higher duty may be relatively lower due to its extensive industrial usage.
"But definitely the consumption-based requirement of gold and silver should go down based on this duty rise," Agrawal said.
On gold import from the UAE, he said it fell both in value and volume despite the higher unit value in 2025-26, leading to a significant drop in the UAE's share of India's overall gold imports. -- PTI
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