By Admin 
The central government has taken a big decision regarding the import of silver. The Center on Saturday made its approval mandatory for the import of silver, thereby moving the metal from ‘free’ to ‘restricted’ category. In fact, in April there was an increase of about 157 percent in silver imports on an annual basis. Recently, the government has increased the import duty on gold and silver from 6% to 15%, so that imports can be controlled and foreign exchange can be saved for essential commodities like energy and fertilizers.
The two types of HS codes include bullion-grade silver or silver bars having a weight of 99.9% or more and other types of silver bars. Harmonized System (HS) codes are a classification system for commercial products. According to the notification, unrestricted import of silver has been stopped from Saturday. Now anyone will need government approval or license to import it.
How much foreign currency does India currently have?
This order of the government has come a few days after the appeal to avoid non-essential foreign travel and not to buy gold for a year in view of the increasing pressure on India’s foreign exchange reserves. India has foreign exchange reserves of more than $690 billion, which is enough to cover 10 months of imports. However, the government is exercising caution because the war may drag on. Especially the import of gold and silver is causing a lot of pressure.
Import of silver is many times more than that of gold.
India’s gold imports increased by 24.08% to $71.98 billion in fiscal year 2026, while silver imports increased by 149.48% to $12.05 billion. Trade data released by the government on Friday showed that silver imports increased to $411.06 million in April, compared to $159.85 million in April 2025. Silver import increased by 181.17% to Rs 3,845.51 crore in April 2026, compared to Rs 1,367.67 crore in the same month of the last financial year.
Data related to the quantity of imported goods for the month of April has not been released yet. However, available data shows that both the import quantity and price of silver in March 2026 were higher than in March 2025. India imported silver consignment which increased by 91% to 128,987 kg in March 2025 and to 247,008 kg in March 2026.
read this also
Central government’s big decision amid oil crisis, SAED reduced on export of diesel and ATF, tax on petrol for the first time