Kathmandu, October 5

Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has allowed commercial banks to import additional five kilos of gold per day from today.

Issuing a notice recently, the central bank had raised the import quota of raw gold targeting the surging demand of the precious metal along with the onset of the festive season. The new import slab of gold at 25 kg per day will be effective till mid-December.

NRB officials said that the revision in import quota of gold has been made as the demand of the yellow metal is at a peak during the Dashain and Tihar festivals. “We will revise the import quota after mid-December as per necessity,” said Bhisma Raj Dhungana, executive director at the foreign exchange department of NRB.

Though jewellers had been demanding the hike in import quota of gold since long, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS) finally gave the central bank the nod to raise the import quota a few days ago.

As higher import of gold will directly have a negative impact on the balance of payments position of the country, both MoICS and NRB were reluctant to raise import quota promptly.

Jewellers have said that the raised import quota of gold is still insufficient to cater to the domestic demand.

“The demand of gold has surged to above 40 kg per day since the past few weeks as customers are on a shopping spree. We recommend the government to rather scrap such quantitative restrictions on gold import and allow traders to import gold themselves,” said Mohan Kumar Sunar, president of the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association.