ISLAMABAD, Nov 28: The government on Thursday allowed the import of gold and silver in bulk and has done away with the condition of seeking approval of the ministry of commerce for its import.

The decision was announced through a customs notification amending the budgetary notification of SRO 358 issued on June 15, 2002.

Currently, the import of gold and silver in bulk was allowed only to the companies registered and authorized by the ministry of commerce on payment of customs duty at the rate of $1 per 11.664 grams for gold and $2 per kg for silver.

The rate of customs duty would remain the same, however, the condition of registration of such importers with ministry of commerce, made compulsory through the budgetary notification, was waived.

According to an official announcement, the import of gold and silver in bulk was allowed provided the importer arranged his own foreign exchange for the purpose and the import duty was realized in foreign exchange.

With this coming into effect, any person desirous of importing gold and silver in bulk could do so by making payment in foreign exchange through his own sources.

The procedures were simplified aiming at liberalizing the import of gold and silver provided the foreign exchange for the importation was arranged by importers themselves vide notification SRO494 issued on August 6, 2002.

Earlier, bulk import of gold and silver were controlled through licensing by ministry of commerce even though in such cases importers arranged for his own foreign exchange. For this six parties were currently licensed to import gold and silver in bulk.

The former commerce minister, Abdul Razak Dawood, in the trade policy 2002, had announced to do away with the licensing requirement and allowed import of gold/silver in bulk so long as the importer managed his own foreign exchange.