Error in gold imports data is because of double calculation, govt clarifies
NEW DELHI: A day after ‘quietly’ revising the gold import data for November, the ministry of commerce has come up with an explanation for the change in the data. The ministry has said that the discrepancy in the numbers was primarily due to migration of data transmission mechanism from SEZ to Indian Customs Electronic Gateway (ICEGATE).
“...it was noticed as the system was calculating both imports into SEZ and subsequent clearance into Domestic Tariff Area (DTA) as separate transactions after the migration,” a statement from the commerce ministry explained.
It must be noted that the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S) on Wednesday revised India’s India’s gold import figure for November 2024 from $14.8 billion to $9.9 billion – a decline of 33%. For April-November, gold imports were revised 24% down from $49 billion to $37 billion. Revisions were also made in cases of silver (revised downward by 29%) and electronics imports (by 4%).
According to the ministry, DGCI&S receives trade data from approximately 500+ locations and about 2.5 lakh transactions every day from different sea ports, land ports, airport and inland container depots.
The EXIM data from more than 100 SEZs was earlier captured by SEZ Online System and EXIM data for all other ports (non-SEZ locations) was captured by ICEGATE system. Both systems (ICEGATE and SEZ Online) were transmitting the EXIM data separately to DGCIS for publishing foreign trade statistics. After the decision to shift EXIM declarations from SEZ Online to ICEGATE system, the EXIM data pertaining to SEZs as well as all other ports is being captured and transmitted by ICEGATE to DGCIS.
The ministry said that owing to persistence of certain technical glitches, the migration is still not complete. Both SEZ Online and ICEGATE are still capturing and transmitting mutually exclusive EXIM data to DGCIS.