NEW DELHI: India’s government said on Thursday it will invite fresh bids for quotas to import gold from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with a concessional duty agreed under a trade pact between the two countries.

The quotas are for the import of 140 tons of gold from UAE in total in the financial year that started on April 1 with a duty that is one percentage point lower than India’s standard 15% gold import duty, the government said in a statement.

India is the world’s second-largest gold consumer and imports the bulk of its gold.

It signed a broad trade and investment pact with the UAE last May which aims to cut tariffs and effectively increase annual trade between the two nations to $100 billion within five years.

Under the agreement, over a period of five years, the quota to import gold at a lower duty from UAE will be raised to as much as 200 tons.