New Delhi: To bring down gold imports and increase financial savings, finance minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday announced three gold schemes, including redeemable gold bonds which will carry a fixed rate of interest.
“I propose to introduce a gold monetisation scheme, which will replace both the present gold deposit and gold metal loan schemes. The new scheme will allow the depositors of gold to earn interest in their metal accounts and the jewellers to obtain loans in their metal account,” said Mr Jaitley in his budget speech. Banks and other dealers would also be able to monetise this gold.
He said that to develop an alternate financial asset, a sovereign gold bond, as an alternative to purchasing metal gold is proposed.
“The bonds will carry a fixed rate of interest, and also be redeemable in cash in terms of the face value of the gold, at the time of redemption by the holder of the bond,” said Mr Jaitley. He proposed to start work on developing an Indian gold coin, which will carry the Ashok Chakra on its face.
“Such an Indian Gold Coin would help reduce the demand for coins minted outside India and also help to recycle the gold available in the country,” he said.
He said stocks of gold in India are estimated to be over 20,000 tonnes but mostly this gold is neither traded, nor monetised.
“The two per cent import duty on gold levied two years back to control the current account deficit should have ideally been rolled back given the current, positive state of affairs,” FICCI’s gems and jewellery committee chairman Mehul Choksi said.
