The Mongolian Central Bank bought a total of 1.6 tons of gold from legal entities and individuals in the first four months of 2019. The figure represents a fall  of 48 percent compared with the same period last year.

This significant decline was directly related to the expiration of the effective period of low royalty taxes on gold with the 2014 amendments to the Minerals Law.

The 2.5-percent of discounted royalty on gold mining ended on 1 Jan. Since then until 7 April, 5 to 10 percent royalty taxes on gold mining have been imposed on miners.

In March, the Mongolian parliament decided to set the gold royalty at a 5-percent rate to revive the central bank’s gold purchase.

Purchasing gold is said to be one of the key instruments for the Mongolian Central Bank to revive its official foreign exchange reserves.