India is the largest consumer of Gold and its demand per annum is around 850 MT. India’s import of Gold in the last three years is around 550 MT per annum. According to rough estimates, 80% gold import is used for Jewellery Fabrication, 15% is for investment demand and around 5% is for industrial use in dental and electronics.

India is one of the largest users of Silver and is ranked third in the world after USA and Japan. India’s average Silver import per annum is around 3500 MT.

The proportion of gold in jewellery is measured on the carat (or Karat) scale. The word carat comes from the carab seed, which was originally used to balance Scales in Oriental bazaars. Pure gold is designated 24 carat, which compares with the “fineness” by which bar gold is defined :

In November 1997, Government of India / Reserve Bank of India introduced the Open General license scheme authorizing 14 banks and 4 Public Sector Undertakings (including PEC) to import gold for domestic use. PEC has been active in gold business since February 1998. PEC was the first agency to offer usance Letter of Credit facility to import gold. PEC imports gold and silver both on Letter of Credit basis as well as on Consignment basis.

PEC is presently importing 1 Kg. Good London Delivery gold bars at various destinations in India like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Jaipur, Chennai from LMBA (London Bullion Market association) approved gold refiners and banks.

PEC offers a variety of services with highly qualified human resource to very demanding customers of India.

PEC import of gold and silver for the last three years is as under :-