The Indian government has said it will review a new tax on unbranded gold jewellery.

印度政府称将重新考虑向无品牌黄金首饰征收新税的决定。

Shops have been closed in some parts of India since the levy¹ was announced in the federal budget on 16 March.

However authorities said they would not budge²（改变态度） on an import duty hike from 2% to 4%.

India is the biggest importer of gold in the world.

In 2011 India imported 933 tonnes of gold, according to the World Gold Council.

Prior to the federal budget the government imposed a so called excise³（消费税） duty only on branded jewellery.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Tuesday that the government would reconsider its new 0.3% excise tax on unbranded gold jewellery because it did not want to harass⁴（使困扰） the industry.

However he added that the import duty would stay because Indians were spending "precious foreign exchange" to buy gold.

The high gold imports have weakened the rupee（卢比） against the major global currencies.