Reacting over the campaign on the TTD gold deposits by a cross-section of people, the temple body clarified that it has been depositing the temple’s gold in public sector banks under the gold deposit scheme for the past 15 years.
In a statement released on Sunday, the TTD clarified that the temple trust board had earlier resolved to keep the gold reserves under the gold monetisation scheme (GMS) of the Centre so as to earn interest at 2.5 per cent which is fixed by the Centre.
According to the statement, the State Bank of India (SBI) is the primary Bank, which undertakes the gold deposits under GMS in a big way, which was announced by the Centre in 2015. Even at present, many banks are not actively coming forward to undertake the long-term gold deposits in bulk. The SBI is a renowned public sector undertaking bank and hence the TTD was depositing gold with this bank since more than a decade.
“TTD holding gold deposits of around 7,800 kgs with the SBI and it reiterates the fact of long standing banking relationship of TTD with the bank. Even in the 7,800 kgs of gold deposits, the SBI is holding around 4,470 kgs since 2017, 920 Kgs since 2018, 1,380 kgs since 2019 and the balance is from 2020,” the temple body said in its statement.
The TTD also clarified that there is no hidden agenda in making gold deposit with the SBI as the Indian Overseas Bank has not accepted gold for the long-term deposit scheme. “In fact, the IOB have requested TTD to give six months to return the gold and agreed to pay the interest at 2.5 per cent which TTD otherwise would have earned by placing under the long-term gold deposit scheme. Given the circumstances, the same gold is deposited with the SBI,” added in the statement.
