To give a fillip to jewellery exports, the government has increased the duty drawback rate by 73 rupees to 173.7 rupees per gram on gold ornaments.

A notification to this effect was issued by the Central Board of Excise and Customs in New Delhi yesterday.

Duty drawback is the refund of duties on imported inputs for export items. The drawback rate has been increased at a time when large import of gold is impacting the country's current account deficit, CAD which is likely to be at a high level of around 5 per cent of the GDP.

The government had raised import duty on the precious metal to 8 per cent with an aim to curb the gold demand.

The RBI has also put restrictions on banks imports of gold.