Top bullion dealers form a federation

More than 50 leading bullion dealers of the country spread across 17 states have decided to deal in gold by banking channels only and not have any dealing in unaccounted money.

For this purpose, they came together and formed the Bullion Federation of India last month. On Tuesday, they will make a representation to the Ministry of Finance.

A spokesperson of the federation said in the past five to six months, when gold import had nose-dived for various reasons, smuggling was high, compared to official imports. According to estimates, in the past few months, 60 per cent gold entered unofficially in the country. Dealers, claim one of the official, account for more than half of India's official gold imports. They place orders with banks and nominated agencies who import gold on their behalf. "The intension behind pledge to sell gold only using banking channels like RTGS or cheque etc is to expose those dealing with cash. There is no other way to expose them," said the spokesperson of the association. The association is meeting finance ministry officials to morrow and make formal representations regarding their decision to deal in gold through banking channel and recommend government to take action against those dealing in smuggled gold. Most members have turnover of over Rs 2000 crore per year and some of them have also set up refineries and are leading dealers of respective states and well known jewelers.

Their grievance is that after imposition of excise on jewelers trade was divided and some suggestions came to increase import duty in lieu of excise which had disturbed them.