Silver to cost more due to duty hike

Jaipur: With Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announcing an increase in import duty on silver and silver dore, silver and silver jewellery will cost more. The new tax regime will impact silver trade in Jaipur, one of the important hubs for silver jewellery.The decision to raise the tax is aimed at rationalizing the duty structure and bringing it at par with gold. Now silver imports will attract duty of 15% and silver dore 14.35%.Sitharaman said in her Budget speech, “I also propose to increase the import duty on silver dore, bars and articles to align them with that on gold and platinum.”Speaking about the hike in duty, Rajiv Jain, ex-chairman of Gold and Jewellery Promotion Council, said, “India is the world’s biggest importer of silver. Exporters who import gold are generally refunded the tax. But they do not get a full refund of the tax. So the increase will hurt them.”