India restricts silver imports till March 31, 2026

New Delhi: A surge in silver imports from certain Asean countries especially Thailand has prompted the government to restricted the imports of silver and unstudded jewellery till March 31, 2026, which were free earlier.

In a notification Wednesday, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said: “The Import Policy…has been amended from ‘Free’ to ‘Restricted’ with immediate effect, till 31.03.2026.”

These restricted products include articles of jewellery and parts of precious metal of silver and unstudded and other jewellery.


Asean, or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, comprises 10 countries-Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Goods under the restriction category need a licence from the government.

Officials said that Thailand isn’t a silver producing country and a surge in imports is a case of circumvention of duty under the Asean-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA).

“There was a surge of upto 40 metric tonne of silver coming from Thailand in an attempt to evade duty. Around 98% of the imports of these products was coming from Thailand,” said an official.

Rice export
In a separate notification, the DGFT also amended the export policy of non-basmati rice by incorporating an additional policy condition wherein its exports shall be permitted only upon registration of contracts with the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).

“Export policy of Non-Basmati Rice has been amended by incorporating an additional policy condition to the extent that export of Non-Basmati Rice shall be permitted only upon registration of contracts with the APEDA,” DGFT said in a notification.

India’s rice exports rose 6.4% on-year to $4.7 billion during the April-August period of FY26.