It had said it will come out with detailed guidelines by May-end. “If the RBI notifies these curbs, the country’s overall gold imports will be hurt and the volumes will fall by 50 per cent in the current fiscal,” state-run MMTC General Manager of the Precious Metals Division Ashwini Kapoor told PTI. If the notification is not released, the country’s overall gold imports are likely to touch the 1,000-tonne mark this year as downtrend in prices of the yellow metal have pushed up the domestic demand significantly, he noted. Kapoor said MMTC’s overseas purchase of gold could increase sharply to 200 tonne, as against 38 tonne last year, if the RBI curbs are not imposed. Gold prices have declined by 15 per cent to Rs 27,500 per 10 grams now as against Rs 32,000 per ten grams in the year-ago period. The country’s annual gold demand is around 800 tonne and this might go up if downtrend in prices of the yellow metal remains through this year, Kapoor added.

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