India DGFT Notification No. 58/2025-26: Import Licensing on Articles of Platinum

Mechanism

DGFT used its delegated authority under the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act 1992 to amend Schedule-I (Import Policy) of ITC (HS) 2022, moving ITC-HS 71141920 ("Articles of Platinum") from "Free" to "Restricted" import status. Restricted status means importers must obtain a DGFT authorisation/licence before customs clearance rather than importing against a standard tariff. Compliance now runs through Policy Condition No. 6 of Chapter 71 of the ITC (HS), the same condition-block used for other precious-metal article restrictions.

This follows a piecemeal 2025-26 pattern of DGFT tightening precious-metal-article import categories one tariff line at a time — platinum alloys (Notification No. 60/2024-25, March 2025), gold-bearing palladium/rhodium/iridium alloys (Notification No. 18/2025-26, June 2025), and now finished platinum articles (this notification). DGFT's subsequent Chapter 71 notification of 2 April 2026 (2026-04-02-india-dgft-chapter-71-precious-metals-import-restriction) folded the broader HS 7114-7115 articles-of-precious-metals category, including this line, into a single consolidated Restricted-status reclassification.

Downstream implications

• Importers/traders of finished platinum jewellery and articles must obtain DGFT Regional

Authority authorisation per consignment, adding lead time and compliance cost versus the prior Free-import regime.

• Continues DGFT's tariff-line-by-tariff-line closure of routes for importing precious

metals (platinum, PGM alloys, now platinum articles) without a licence.

• Superseded in scope four weeks later by the broader Chapter 71 reclassification of

2 April 2026, which restated Restricted status for the wider HS 7114-7115 series.

Open questions

• What DGFT Regional Authority turnaround time applies to platinum-article licence

applications, and has any backlog been reported by jewellery-trade associations?

• What import volume under HS 71141920 this notification was actually targeting — no

public estimate has surfaced.