Revised Data
Govt revises downward import data for several commodities since April
This story was originally published at 18:53 IST on 8 January 2025
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By Sandeep Sinha
MUMBAI – The government has sharply revised downwards import data for several commodities since April, according to data on the Ministry of Commerce and Industry website. Earlier on Wednesday, the government announced a revision of merchandise trade data for November, lowering gold imports for the month by $5 billion to $9.84 billion. It also scaled down gold imports in Apr-Nov to $37.39 billion from the $49.08 billion announced earlier.
The merchandise trade data released by the ministry for November had raised doubts about the accuracy of data, especially about gold imports, forcing the government to recalculate them.
The revision has also applied to other commodities. The government drastically scaled down the import data for petroleum, crude and products in November by $3.71 billion to $12.4 billion from the original estimate of $16.11 billion. For the Apr-Nov period, the imports were revised down by a whopping $28.21 billion to $95.06 billion from $123.26 billion.
Similarly, iron and steel imports for November and Apr-Nov were also revised down by $440.4 million and $3.41 billion, respectively.
While the size of the revision in value terms is large, so is the reduction of quantitative figures.
The gold imports in quantity terms were 117.14 tonnes in November. The data on imports in quantity terms for November was released for the first time on Wednesday.
The commerce ministry revised down the country's gold imports in October to 57.92 tonnes from 85.74 tonnes released earlier. The data on gold imports in September was reduced by 13.25 tonnes and for August by 17.91 tonnes.
Accordingly, the data for gold imports in Apr-Nov has been reduced by 81.85 tonnes to 491.32 tonnes.
"The revised import figures clearly suggest that gold imports are likely to remain at par or maybe a little lower than the previous year. So the speculation about a rise in customs duty due to a surge in gold imports looks to be ruled out now," Surendra Mehta, national secretary at India Bullion and Jewellers Association, said.
"The government has made the biggest modification to its gold import estimates in history, by cutting them by an extraordinary $5 billion in November," Renisha Chainani, research head at Augmont Gold For All, said.
The government has also substantially lowered silver imports as well. The country imported 135.67 tonnes of silver in October compared with the earlier figure of 330.50 tonnes. Similarly, the silver imports in Apr-Nov have been trimmed by 809 tonnes to 2555.52 tonnes from 3,364.53 tonnes. End
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Edited by Saji George Titus
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