United Arab Emirates to India
Checked 2026-09-22
Public law and official guidance, published as research. Not legal, tax or financial advice.
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UAE gold (mainly UAE Good Delivery bars) moving to India. The India-UAE CEPA gives a tariff-rate quota on HS 7108: 1 percentage point below the MFN rate within a quota that rises from 120 t to 200 t (160 t in FY2024-25, 180 t in FY2025-26). TRQ gold may be imported only by DGFT TRQ allocation holders buying on IIBX, only as UAE Good Delivery bars carrying a UAE certificate of origin (issued by the UAE Ministry of Economy), and not as doré. CEPA origin rules count gold's origin as where it was mined, and plain gold jewellery needs a change of tariff sub-heading (CTSH) plus 3.5% value addition. Outside the quota, UAE gold pays ordinary Indian duty. India closed a 'platinum alloy' misdeclaration route in May 2025. India's recorded imports from the UAE were 204.6 t in 2024, well above the quota.
How sure this page is
- Secondary 2
- Unverified 1
- Researcher's note 1
Where practice departs from the law
What credible sources show happening that the law does not provide for.
UN Comtrade's UAE export record to India for 2023 carries an implausible quantity (1,894,530 kg for US$6.89bn), so only values are usable; values agree closely with India's record (US$6.62bn).
UnverifiedResearcher's note: Inference by the pair researcher from the mirror figures; not stated by either statistics office.
Importers declared near-pure gold as platinum alloy to claim CEPA benefits until the May 2025 HS split.
SecondaryGTRI argues most precious-metal imports under CEPA do not meet the rules of origin: Dubai firms claim 3.5% value addition on silver while actual addition is under 0.5%; it estimated revenue loss at Rs 63,375 crore a year on FY2024 levels.
Secondary
What we could not obtain
Documents the research needed and could not get, where they might be, and why.
No gaps recorded