In India, gold is not only associated with investment but also with emotions and security. But now concerns are being raised about the increasing gold imports in the country. Firoz Aziz, CEO of Anand Rathi Wealth, has appealed to the people to sell some idle gold kept in their homes, so that the country’s import burden can be reduced and the rupee can strengthen.
India’s gold import becomes a big concern
According to Firoz Aziz, India is importing more gold than required every year. Till a few years ago, the country’s gold import bill was around $35 billion, which has now increased to around $75 billion. This is having a direct impact on the current account deficit of the country and the strength of the rupee.
He said that there is often a lot of discussion on the selling of foreign investors (FIIs), but in reality gold import has become a bigger economic pressure than that. FII outflow in the financial year 2025-26 was around Rs 1.68 lakh crore, while the gold import bill is many times more than that.
A huge amount of gold is kept in the houses
Aziz estimates that Indian families have gold worth about $4 trillion, which is mostly lying in lockers and homes. He says that if people sell just 2 to 4 percent of their total gold, the country’s import bill can be significantly reduced.
Giving the example of his company Anand Rathi Wealth, he said that he has about 13,800 family customers. If every family sells just 100 grams of gold, then gold worth about Rs 2,500 to 3,000 crore can come back into the market.
Selling gold is not sacrifice, it is wisdom
Firoz Aziz says that this is not a matter of charity or sacrifice. Gold prices are currently around record levels and recently some decline has also been seen. In such a situation, this could be a good opportunity for investors to book profits.
He said that just as people book profits at the right time in the stock market, the same should be done in gold also. He believes that this will benefit the people and also reduce the economic pressure of the country.
Demand for tax relief from the government
Aziz has also demanded the government to remove capital gains tax on gold transactions for some time. He says that if there is relief in tax then people will easily be ready to sell their old gold. Appealing to the people, he said that common citizens can also play an important role in strengthening the country’s economy.
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