India restricts Liquid Gold Imports to curb Gold Duty Evasion
- finminati
- Jun 20
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 29
A 1-minute and 1-page summary
20 June 2025, Friday
India has fixed the loophole that allowed importers to import actual gold as liquid gold, without paying import duty.
Learn more about what is liquid gold, what is this loophole, impact of the loophole, and the action taken by the government, only on FINMINATI.
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Recently in India, importers have been importing gold in the form of Liquid Gold compound, in order to escape the 6% import duty.
What is Liquid Gold?
Liquid gold is a form of chemical compound. It is a colloidal precious metal i.e. tiny particles of gold dispersed in a liquid.
These gold compounds are used in industrial applications and generally attract no import duty.
Importers seem to have tried to use this fact as a loophole to try and bring actual gold into India without having to pay any import duty.
Impact
Gold compound imports have risen 9.25 times in the past 1 year, while actual gold imports fell 0.9%.
According to Mint’s calculations, the government has lost ₹ 906 crores in customs duty in FY25 because of gold being imported as liquid gold.
Action Taken
The government has changed the import policy for gold compounds and 12 other items from ‘free’ to ‘restricted’ category.
In a separate order, DGFT also put palladium, rhodium and iridium alloy with more than 1% gold, in the ‘restricted’ category.
This means the importers would now need a license from DGFT (Directorate General of Foreign Trade), to import the liquid gold.
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