By Umesh Kamble
Mumbai : The Bombay Bullion Association favoured the income tax (I-T) raid on the office
of the bullion dealer RiddiSiddhi Bullion Ltd, and the residence of its managing director Prithviraj Kothari and other directors.
“The entire bullion trader fraternity got maligned due to the bad name of a few bullion dealers and hence, the BBA has vowed to clean up and restore the good fame of the bullion trade that has been built over centuries,” said Mohit Kamboj, president of the apex trade body Bombay Bullion Association Ltd.
Only the government can take such action against the errant bullion dealers who sale gold to whom, nobody knows.
The BBA has written a letter to the Finance Minister P Chidambaram for his latest remarks over bullion trade in which he appealed to the common people not to buy bullion or jewellery for a year.
“Indian public and private sector banks have lent around Rs 300,000 crore to bullion dealers and jewellery manufacturers and retailers. If common people would not buy gold than, servicing this debt would be a problem,” he said.
Would the Finance Minister declare this lent amount as a non performing asset (NPA)? he asked.
Meanwhile, the BBA also urged the government to ban gold import by private players in line with the recent restrictions imposed on banks.
The recent action by the government to raise import duty from the existing 6 percent to 8 percent has intensified smuggling into India through Scrap gold sale and import of dore bar(raw gold) has also increased significantly since the increase in import duty.