Govt fixes gold import data after confusion over count

The Union government has found and resolved data discrepancies over gold imports, reducing the trade deficit in November from the previous $37.8 billion to about $32.8 billion, people familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity. The error arose from issues related to interoperability between two data collection systems recording the same data — in this case gold imports — the first counting shipments of gold to special economic zones and again capturing supplies to domestic tariff areas. The error arose from issues related to interoperability between two data collection systems recording the same data -- in this case gold imports -- the first counting shipments of gold to special economic zones and again capturing supplies to domestic tariff areas, one of the people, a senior official explained. The double counting of gold imports happened because the migration of data recording system from NSDL to the Indian Customs Electronic Data Interchange Gateway was not entirely finished, this person said.