The government has restricted the imports of certain waste and scrap of precious metal or of metal clad with precious metal. Their imports were free earlier.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade amended the import policy for ash containing precious metal or precious metal compounds including gold, platinum and silver to “restricted” from “free” which means a license would be required for their inbound shipments.

“Import policy…has been revised from ‘Free’ to ‘Restricted’ with immediate effect,” the DGFT said in a notification.

India’s imports of these goods in April-February FY22 were $36.6 million as against $72 million in the entire 2020-21.