NEW DELHI(BullionStreet): Giving some relief to Non Resident Indians (NRI) living in abroad, Indian finance minister P.Chidambaram has raised the value of gold that can be brought home from abroad.

A male passenger can now bring gold worth 50,000 rupees without paying any duty while a women passenger can bring gold worth up to 1,00,000 for free.

However, the finance minister reduced the amount of gold as the maximum permissible weight of gold that can be imported has been reduced to 1 kg from 10 kgs.

Duty rates on gold were revised in the 2012-13 budget. While the government does not control gold prices, the duty was earlier fixed at Rs 750 per 10 grams plus a three per cent education cess.

But from last year the government has fixed the price of gold in dollar terms for the sake of duty collection alone and has been revising rates on a monthly or fortnightly basis.

NRI's have long demanded that the Indian government should levy the customs duty based on the weight of gold instead of the value of gold as rate of gold will keep changing.