Parliament: The government has decided to formulate a time-befitting policy for gold import after consultation with relevant agencies.

The proposed policy will help flourishing country's jewellery sector as well as creating export market, said Finance Minister AMA Muhith while unveiling the national budget for the fiscal year 2017-18 in Parliament on Thursday.

"I hope that we can formulate such policy within this calendar year," the Finance Minister said.

"Jewellery is a traditional business sector of Bangladesh. But due to the absence of a hard and fast rule for the import of gold, the sector is not flourishing in a manner as we think of," he said.

The association of this sector has made various proposals in order to formulate a realistic guideline for import of gold and to make the industry business friendly, Muhith said.