MMTC FY'11 Gold Import Up By 31%.

State-run MMTC said it has imported 245 tonnes of gold in the 2010-11 fiscal, up by 31 per cent from the previous year.

Similarly, silver imports have increased by over six per cent to 880 tonnes in FY'11, as against 827 tonnes in the year-ago, it said.

"As per the provisional data, the company has imported 245 tonnes of gold and 880 tonnes of silver during the 2010-11 fiscal," MMTC Chairman and Managing Director H S Mann said at the inauguration of the company's 31st edition of gold festival.

To encash on the growing appetite of precious metal, the company had recently said it plans to import 275 tonnes of gold and 1,200 tonnes of silver in the 2011-12 fiscal.

There would be more import of silver as the demand for

investment in the white metal has been rising as hedge against inflation in the domestic market, a senior official had said.

India, the world's largest consumer of gold and silver, buys more than 4,000 tonnes of silver and over 960 tonnes of gold annually.

At the 31st edition of gold festival, MMTC launched silver medallions of different variants in partnership with Switzerland-based PAMP.

Mann said the company's total turnover is expected to touch Rs 65,000 crore for FY'11, as against Rs 45,124 crore in the previous fiscal driven by robust growth in sales of precious metals.

Source : expressindia.com