Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu says working to set up gold council

Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu on Friday spoke to CNBC-TV18 about how the government is planning to tackle the slowing gold demand.

“We are working with the industry very closely to find out how we can explore bigger markets and newer markets for them. We are also trying to work on domestic issues. So domestic gold council, which is set up for the first time, will ensure that all the issues will be addressed on not only one time basis but on long-term and on all-time basis. So we are working on those issues,” Prabhu said on the side-lines of the India Gold and Jewellery Summit.

“We have taken the financing issue to the ministry of finance because the industry needs money without working capital how can anybody function. So we are trying to already work on that,” he added.

Talking about how the government is working on boosting gold demand, Prabhu said, “Through market research, we have also identified the products that can be exported and in which countries it can be exported. We are also trying to make government to government relationship, like Russia with Zimbabwe and many others. We are working with all the countries together as well as with stakeholders within the country to find out how we can develop this industry because it has a huge job potential, it has economic opportunities."

Speaking about the import duty, he said, “This is one important issue which we also feel because the industry which is export oriented particularly if you have import duties then again the working capital gets blocked up. So we are already working on that proactively. At the same time, the ministry of finance has a responsibility to curtail current account deficit (CAD) so therefore they are also trying to find out how we can keep the import under control. So we have to balance the both together.”