Recently, on 07 August 2025, US President Donald Trump imposed a 50 per cent tariff on Indian imports, citing New Delhi’s imports of Russian crude. The new tariff rate will take effect from 27 August 2025, making India one of the most heavily taxed US trading partners. In this context, a video showing ‘TIMES NOW Navbharat’ news presenter Sushant Sinha reporting that the RBI has shifted about 100 tonnes of gold from foreign vaults to India is being widely shared on social media platforms, with claims that India moved its gold from foreign vaults to India in response to the recent tariff hike imposed by President Trump (here, here, here, and here). Through this article, let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: India moved about 100 tonnes of its gold reserves from foreign vaults to India in response to the recent tariff hike imposed by President Trump.
Fact: There are no credible reports indicating that India moved about 100 tonnes of its gold reserves from foreign vaults to India in response to the recent tariff hike imposed by President Trump. This viral news report video dates back to 2024 and was premiered on the official YouTube channel of ‘TIMES NOW Navbharat’ on 01 June 2024. According to the RBI’s 2023–24 annual report, India shifted about 100 tonnes of gold reserves from foreign vaults to India in the financial year 2023–24. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
To verify the claim, we conducted a relevant keyword search on the internet; however, this search did not yield any credible news reports indicating that India moved about 100 tonnes of its gold reserves from foreign vaults to India in response to the recent tariff hike imposed by President Trump. We then checked the official websites of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Government of India’s Press Information Bureau (PIB), but found no information supporting the viral claim.
A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral news report video revealed that the report dates back to June 2024 and was premiered on the official YouTube channel of ‘TIMES NOW Navbharat’ on 01 June 2024. In this video, the viral clip starts at the timestamp 0:19 seconds and ends at 03:35.
It should be noted that, according to the RBI’s 2023–24 annual report, about 100 metric tonnes of gold stored abroad had been shifted to domestic vaults in India in the financial year 2023–24. In 2024, several media outlets (here, here, and here) also reported that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) moved 100 metric tonnes (MT) of gold stored in the United Kingdom to domestic vaults in 2023–24. From this, it is clear that a news report video from 2024 is being shared now as if it were recent, to falsely claim that India moved its gold reserves from foreign vaults to India in response to the recent tariff hike imposed by President Trump.
Factly has earlier written a fact-check article about claims regarding India moving its gold reserves from foreign vaults to India in the financial year 2023–24.
To sum it up, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) moved about 100 tonnes of gold from foreign vaults to India in the financial year 2023–24, not recently in August 2025.
