RBI to tweak gold monetisation scheme
28 Nov 2015
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is set to ''fine tune'' the gold monetisation scheme as the initial response to it has been lukewarm.
''We need some fine tuning (for the gold monetisation scheme),'' RBI governor Raghuram Rajan told reporters in New Delhi.
Till 18 November, the gold monetisation scheme had garnered 400 grams of physical gold. The country has over 20,000 tonnes of idle gold worth over Rs5,200,000 crore with households and institutions.
Gems and jewellery industry representatives last week met economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das and discussed ways to make the scheme attractive.
The industry associations urged the government to allow BIS certified jewellers to act as collection agent for the gold monetisation scheme and the finance ministry had given an in-principle nod to the suggestion.
At present, there are 3.5 lakh jewellers in the country, of which 13,000 are BIS-certified.
With regard to sovereign gold bond, the central bank chief said ''response to the scheme has been good and encouraging''.
As many as 63,000 application totalling Rs246 crore has been received under the first tranche of Gold Bond scheme which closed on 20 November. The allotment of bonds will happen on 30 November.
''This is an excellent response for an innovative product,'' Shaktikanta Das tweeted today.