Targeting The Home Tourist

No gold has been advanced by MMTC Ltd for nearly three weeks now and exports have virtually come down to a trickle during this period, resulting in a loss of nearly Rs 50 crore. On an average, exports worth nearly Rs two crore take place from here and the total exports from the domestic tariff area last year was around Rs 700 crore.

Merchant exporters dominate the export business and since most of them are not manufacturers, the supply of gold has nearly stopped. This has come at a time of the year when the exports pick up substantially in view of the festival season ahead.

 

Jewellers yesterday charged that the customs notification (no 38/96) was void since the EXIM policy did not differentiate between the manufacturer and the merchant exporter, even for the purpose of raw materials like gold.

The Delhi Gold Jewellery Exporters Association demanded in a statement issued yesterday that gold be immediately released to all registered jewellery exporters in the domestic tariff area as per the EXIM policy.

Official sources said the customs notification is a fallout of the tussle between MMTC and jewellers on who was responsible if the gold, which had been imported for value addition to be exported later, was not actually exported. While jewellers claimed that they were only fabricators for MMTC, the superstar trading house told the customs authorities that the gold had been handed over to the manufacturers who were responsible for its export within the stipulated period according RBI regulations.

The issue was brought to light after a series of irregularities were discovered in jewellery exports. While some manufacturers had failed to export their products within the stipulated period, in the case of others the overseas payments were not received within 180 days as specified by the RBI. At the Noida Export Processing Zone (NEPZ), MMTC was found to have loaned gold to some manufacturers in quantities exceeding what had been recommended by the NEPZ development commissioner.