New Delhi: The Government of India has raised its basic import duty on gold to 12.5% from 7.5%, the government said in a notification on Friday. Import duty on gold has been thus hiked by 5%. Gold will now attract 12.5% import duty in addition to 3% GST, 2.5% agriculture cess and 0.75% of social welfare surcharge. Gold prices are expected to go up here with effective duty at 15.75%

India addresses most of its gold demand through imports, which were putting pressure on the rupee which hit a record low earlier this week. India’s current account balance showed a deficit of 1.2% of GDP in FY22 against a surplus of 0.9% in F21 as the trade imbalance widened to $189.5 billion from $102.2 billion a year ago.