National News
GJEPC voices sector priorities at Board of Trade meeting in New Delhi
At the fourth meeting of the reconstituted Board of Trade (BoT) held in New Delhi on 25th November, Shaunak Parikh, Vice Chairman, GJEPC, and Sabyasachi Ray, Executive Director, GJEPC, joined industry leaders and policymakers for discussions led by Piyush Goyal, Hon’ble Minister of Commerce & Industry.
The GJEPC leadership also interacted with Rajesh Aggarwal, Commerce Secretary, during the meeting, which focused on India’s export momentum, the economic outlook, and the government’s ongoing push to strengthen the country’s global trade position.
Parikh thanked the Minister for launching the Export Promotion Mission and for placing the gem and jewellery sector in the priority list. He noted the upcoming EU and G7 requirements that call for full traceability of diamonds from January 2026. He urged the Ministry to recommend extending the implementation timeline to at least July 2026, or until global standards, guidelines and pilot systems are finalized.
Mr. Parikh also raised concerns about restrictions on gold, silver and platinum alloy and jewellery imports. He requested that licences for non-FTA countries, where no duty benefit exists, be issued through the automatic route to ease business operations for exporters.
The BoT meeting also reviewed progress on major trade facilitation initiatives, including the rapid expansion of the Trade Connect e-Platform, improvements in grievance redressal, the extension of the RoDTEP scheme, and advances made in digital Certificates of Origin.
India’s appetite for borrowing against gold is reshaping the country’s credit landscape. Outstanding gold-backed loans have surged 128% from a year earlier, crossing Rs.4 lakh crore ($48 billion) for the first time, according to data from the Reserve Bank of India. As of Jan. 31, loans secured by gold jewellery stood at Rs.4,00,517 crore, marking one of the fastest expansions in retail credit in recent years.
The boom in gold loans has helped propel overall non-food bank credit growth to 14.4% year-on-year. Personal loans now account for 34.5% of total bank lending, outpacing other segments and underscoring a broader shift toward consumer-driven credit expansion
Gold loans alone contributed roughly 9% of incremental bank credit during the period. Between January 2024 and January 2026, outstanding gold-backed credit rose by nearly Rs.3.1 lakh crore—an increase of about 338% over two years—more than quadrupling the size of the portfolio.
Two factors are driving the surge. First, gold prices have climbed roughly 152% over the past two years, increasing the collateral value of household holdings. Second, regulatory guidance requiring banks to classify loans secured by gold explicitly as gold loans has sharpened reporting and accelerated balance-sheet growth in the segment.
The trend highlights a distinctive feature of India’s financial system: households’ vast stock of physical gold, long viewed primarily as a store of wealth, is increasingly being mobilized as collateral for formal credit.
While personal lending and credit to nonbank financial companies within the services sector continue to expand rapidly, industrial credit remains uneven. Loans to micro, small and medium enterprises are growing steadily, but borrowing by large corporations has stayed relatively muted.
Since March 21, 2025, banks have added Rs.21.8 lakh crore to their non-food loan books, translating into 12% growth for the financial year to date. Yet it is gold—rather than factories or infrastructure—that is emerging as one of the most dynamic engines of India’s current credit cycle.
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