RBI asks govt to impose restriction on gold import firms

To bridge widening current account deficit, the Reserve Bank of India has urged government to extend the restriction on import of gold to gold import houses, a source in the central bank said. “We are in talks with the commerce ministry to extend the restriction to gold import firms," a top central bank official said. The central bank said that objective behind putting restriction on gold imports to rein in current account deficit. Earlier this month, RBI, in its annual policy review, had imposed restriction on import of the yellow metal by banks. The central bank had said gold import by banks will only be restricted to consignment basis to meet genuine needs of exporters. However, the restriction were not imposed on gold import houses, also known as premier trading houses, which had opened a huge revenue opportunity for them, as they had charging hefty premium for selling gold to retailers.