Worried over widening trade gap,  the Reserve Bank and the ministries concerned are devising steps to contain gold imports, commerce secretary SR Rao  said. "Trade deficit is of concern to the government. But this is a step in which RBI, finance ministry and commerce ministry are involved. So, we are consulting. At the moment this is all  I can say," Rao said . He said the RBI has already put some restrictions on consignment imports of the banks. "So, we are seeing which way we need to move forward now. We are examining" he added.

 

In May, gold imports touched 162  tonne. Gold imports in the country, the world's largest consumer of the metal, stood at around 830 tonne in 2012-13. The surge in gold imports pushed up the trade deficit to $17.7 billion in April.

 

Yesterday, the government said there would  be corrective measures to check the alarming trend that has put huge pressure on current account deficit.