FM says, gold monetisation will pick up in due time

Even as the flagship Gold Monetisation Scheme attracts barely 3.1 tonne of yellow metal nine months after its launch, the government is in no mood to tweak the scheme but hopes it will pick up in due time.

“Since it is a long-term scheme, I hope it should pick up in the next few months,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, appealing to people to invest more in such schemes rather than in physical gold.

The GMS aims at monetising nearly 20,000 tonnes of idle gold lying with temples and households but not many households have shown interest in the schemes. So far, the government has collected much of the gold under the schemes from temple trusts with a major chunk coming from Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD).

In contrast, the Sovereign Gold Bond  Scheme has been able to fetch close to five tonne gold since its launch. “The gold bond scheme is doing much better,” Jaitley said. He was speaking at an event organised by Ficci.

The two schemes were launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November 2015. India imports close to 1,000 tonnes of gold every year. It shipped 904.5 tonnes last year.

The government is not planning to tweak any of the two schemes but will enhance infrastructure to make it easier for people to come forward and deposit the yellow metal.