Keeping the Government’s hope alive on its proposed gold bond scheme among other related schemes, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently, the Finance Minister on Friday said that the gold bond scheme got overwhelming response from retail investors with 63,000 applications amounting to Rs246 crore, while the gold monetisation scheme, which has so far witnessed a lukewarm response, has been tweaked. Besides, the central bank has also said that the RBI is all set to fine tune the gold monetisation scheme due its initial response.
“The gold bond 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 Govt, RBI set to fine tune the gold monetisation scheme as it has got lukewarm response246.20 crore by banks and post offices for 917 kg of gold,” said the Finance Ministry statement.
The first tranche of Sovereign Gold Bond, which was issued by the reserve bank of India (RBI) between November 5-20 through banks and post offices, saw overwhelming response from retail investors.
As soon as the Finance Ministry statement on gold monetisation scheme came to the public domain, the central bank responded with some positive remarks in this regard. The RBI is set to fine tune the gold monetisation scheme as the initial response to the scheme has been lukewarm. “We need some fine tuning the gold monetisation scheme,” RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan told reporters here.
Earlier in the day Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das had also tweeted on the scheme saying “Excellent response for an innovative product (gold bond 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 Finance Ministry statement said.
As regards the Gold monetisation scheme, the statement said that those depositing gold under the scheme would be exempt from Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax. “After stakeholder consultation following ‘slow response’ to this scheme, the Government has taken seven decisions to improve the reach of the scheme,” it said.
These decisions also include gold depositors can give their gold directly to the refiner without involving the collection and purity testing centres wherever it is acceptable to the banks. “This will encourage the bulk depositors like HUFs and institutions to participate in the scheme,” it added.