RBI to fine tune gold monetisation scheme

The Reserve Bank of India is set to ‘fine tune’ the gold monetisation scheme as the initial response to the scheme has been lukewarm.

"We need some fine tuning (gold monetisation scheme)," RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan told reporters.

Till November 18, the gold monetisation scheme had garnered 400 grams of physical gold.

The country has over 20,000 tonnes worth over Rs 52 lakh crore (Rs 52 trillion) of idle gold 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 gold monetisation scheme and the Finance Ministry had given an in-principle nod to the suggestion.

At present, there are 350,000 jewellers in the country, of which 13,000 are BIS-certified.

With regard to sovereign gold bond, the Governor said ‘response to the scheme has been good and encouraging’.

As many as 63,000 application totalling Rs 246 crore (Rs 2.46 billion) has been received under the first tranche of gold bond scheme which closed on November 20.

The allotment of bonds will happen on November 30.

"This is an excellent response for an innovative product," Shaktikanta Das tweeted on Friday.

The image is used for representational purpose only. Photograph: Caren Firouz/Reuters