In the wake of rising global prices of precious metals, the government on Thursday hiked the tariff value of gold and silver to $573 per ten gram and $1145 per kg, respectively.

The tariff value, which is released fortnigthly, is the base price on which the customs duty is determined to prevent under-invoicing.

During February, the tariff value of gold stood at $556 per ten gram and of silver at $1,067 per kg.

The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) issued a notification in this regard.

Earlier this year, the government had changed the duty structure on gold and silver from specific to value-linked, making precious metals more expensive.

The import duty on gold was fixed at 2 per cent of the value, instead of the earlier rate of Rs 300 per 10 grams. On silver, the import duty was pegged at 6 per cent, as against Rs 1,500 per kg earlier.

In 2011, around 1,037 tonne of gold was available in India, the world's biggest consumer, of which 967 tonne was imported and the rest was from other sources like recycled, according to the World Gold Council.     

 The country's total gold demand in 2011 had declined slightly to 933.4 tonne against 1,006.3 tonne in the previous calendar year, it said.

At present, global prices of gold are ruling firm at $1707 per ounce (28.34 grams) and silver rates at $34.95 per 3.43 kg in London.