By Frik Els
MINING.com
Long the top importer of gold, India fell behind China in 2013.
The decline in gold consumption came after bullion import duties were pushed up tenfold — from 1% at the start of 2012 to 10% — and other rules such as mandatory re-export of 20% of imports, transaction taxes and even curbs on ETF buying stymied India’s gold industry.
Business-friendly prime minister elect Narendra Modi’s sweeping victory has raised hopes inside the country that promises of relief for the gold industry that employs more than 3 million traders and shopworkers would be kept.
Last week gold was boosted by news that the Reserve Bank of India is relaxing the much-maligned 80-20 import-export measure.