India's GST Council is expected to consider withdrawing the 2017 IGST exemption on gold, silver and platinum imports by banks and nominated agencies — including government entities MMTC and the State Trading Corporation.
Currently the 3% IGST on precious metal imports is waived for these importers; removing the exemption would put banks, nominated agencies and bullion exchanges on equal footing, and end the classification and valuation disputes behind years of litigation.
The stakes are large: gold imports grew 3.38% to $17.47 billion in April–August 2026-27, and the government already hiked gold and silver import duty to 15% in May to curb non-essential imports.
