Overwhelming Response To Gold Bond Scheme: Govt
28 November , New Delhi
he government Friday said it has received an overwhelming response from retail investors to the Gold Bond Scheme. An official release said 63,000 applications have been received for 917 kgs of gold of total value Rs 246.20 crore by the Banks and Post Offices.
The Ministry said the main objectives of the scheme is to reduce the demand for physical gold and shift a part of the gold imported every year for investment purposes into financial savings through Gold Bonds.
The first tranche of SGB was issued on behalf of the Government of India by the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) at the branches of scheduled commercial banks and designated post offices through its ‘e-kuber system’ from November 5, 2015 to November 25, 2015.
The Ministry said more tranches will be issued during the financial year 2015-16. This SGB scheme saw an “overwhelming response from the investors throughout the country” and initial figures show that about 63,000 applications were received for a total of Rs 246.20 crores by the Banks and Post Offices for 917 killogram of gold.
“It may be noted that this overwhelming response has been received from the retail investors who are the focus of this scheme. The positive response to this new and innovative saving instrument has elicited response from across the country and it is expected that subsequent tranches will continue to receive such enthusiastic response”, the release said.
The Gold Monetisation scheme (GMS) provides different options to the people to monetise the gold. “The idea is to mobilise the gold held by households and institutions in the country and putting this gold into productive use. The scheme aims to reduce the countrys reliance on the import of gold to meet the domestic demand,” the release said
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The release said at present there are 33 “Collection and Purity Testing Centres (CPTCs) and five refiners that have been notified in the scheme. This had resulted into signing of limited number of tripartite agreements among banks, CPTCs and refiners.
After the slow response to this scheme, a meeting of all the stakeholders of the scheme was held in the Department of Economic Affairs. In the meeting, a number of decisions were taken to improve the reach of the scheme. The decisions include that gold depositors can give their gold directly to the refiner without involving the ‘Collection and Purity Testing Centres (CPTCs)’ where ever it is acceptable to the Banks.
The release said this will encourage the bulk depositors like Hindu Undivided Families(HUFs) and institutions to participate in the scheme. It said the fees to the banks on account of testing , transport , refining and storage services at ‘Collection and Purity Testing Centres (CPTCs ) and refiners for Medium and Long Term Government Deposits will be reimbursed based on the actuals, removing such doubts in the minds of the Banks.aid.
The Ministry said to increase the awareness among depositors,the government will continue the awareness campaign in the print media, social media, Radio and Television.