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Last amendment: DGFT corrigendum to Notification No. 18/2025-26 extends the >1%-gold-content Restricted classification to osmium and ruthenium alloys under ITC-HS 71104100 and 71104900, which had previously only covered iridium under those two codes. on 2025-06-25.
DGFT used its delegated authority under the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act 1992 to amend Schedule-I (Import Policy) of ITC (HS) 2022 for Chapter 71. Six tariff lines covering palladium, rhodium, and iridium (in both unwrought/powder and other forms) move from "Free" to "Restricted" for the subset of goods that are gold-bearing alloys above a 1% gold-by-weight threshold — plain unwrought or powder-form PGM metal below that threshold stays freely importable. Restricted status means an importer needs a DGFT Regional Authority licence before customs clearance, rather than facing a tariff or an outright ban.
The notification is explicitly framed as closing the same loophole targeted by the 5 March 2025 platinum-alloy restriction (Notification No. 60/2024-25): importers routing gold into India disguised as a minority component of a precious-metal-alloy import, where the alloy's own tariff line historically carried no licensing requirement. Extending the same >1%-gold-content test to palladium, rhodium, and iridium closes that route across the whole 7110 heading rather than just platinum.
A corrigendum eight days later (25 June 2025) widened the same test to iridium/osmium/ ruthenium-mixed tariff lines 71104100 and 71104900, adding osmium and ruthenium alloys to the Restricted list (see amendments).
containing gold must now obtain DGFT RA authorisation per shipment, adding lead time.
low-gold-content PGM alloys are unaffected — the 1% threshold is calibrated to catch gold-smuggling arbitrage rather than bona fide industrial inputs.
corrigendum eight days later) that DGFT's April 2026 Chapter 71 notification (2026-04-02-india-dgft-chapter-71-precious-metals-import-restriction) later folded into a broader Chapter 71 reclassification.
times for these tariff lines?
restriction actually targeting — no public estimate has surfaced.