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Precious metals refiner MMTC-PAMP plans to start silver recycling at its existing stores on a pilot basis within three months as rising demand threatens to create serious supply-side constraints, the company's top executive said. Managing Director and CEO Samit Guha said the company is entering silver recycling because the economics are now more favourable, while global mine production capacity shows no signs of significant expansion despite growing demand. "If silver demand keeps going the way it is, we could have serious supply-side constraints. Eventually, recycled silver will have to play a bigger role to fill this gap," Guha told PTI in an interview. He called on the government to encourage silver recycling, noting that Indian households hold an estimated 25,000 tonnes of gold and ten times that amount in silver. MMTC-PAMP operates 20 stores for gold recycling that can be adapted to handle silver. The company plans to double its store count over the next five years. "We need
The precious metal refining sector expects the government to address duty disparities that put domestic refiners at a disadvantage compared to imports through free trade agreements, MMTC-PAMP Managing Director and CEO Sami Guha said on Friday. "One of the expectations we've had as not just MMTC-PAMP, but as the whole precious metal refining sector has seen this disparity, which is there in duty, especially through the SEPA route between what we get as Dore versus what refined bullion is imported at," Guha said. The duty gap puts refiners at a significant disadvantage, though the government appears to be aware of the issue, he said. FTAs signed after the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) have excluded bullion, and the industry hopes future trade agreements follow the same approach by not including gold and silver in lower duty structures. To boost India's global standing in refining and increase the number of London Bullion Market Association-accredited refiners, the government needs