You are here
Indian gold paperization scheme is failing so govt. boosts subsidy to banks
Banks to Get Commission for Unlocking Household Gold, RBI Says
By Rajendra Jadhav
Reuters
Friday, January 22, 2016
MUMBAI -- The government will pay banks a 2.5 percent commission to unlock the country's massive stash of gold under a new monetization scheme, the Reserve Bank of India said, as the ambitious plan received a poor response from banks and customers.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Gold Monetization Scheme on Nov. 5 to lure an estimated 20,000 tonnes of gold hoarded in households and temples into the banking system and trim the import bill of the world's second biggest gold consumer after China.
... Dispatch continues below ...
Buy metals at GoldMoney and enjoy international storage
GoldMoney was established in 2001 by James and Geoff Turk and is safeguarding more than $1.7 billion in metals and currencies. Buy gold, silver, platinum, and palladium from GoldMoney over the Internet and store them in vaults in Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, taking advantage of GoldMoney's low storage rates, among the most competitive in the industry. GoldMoney also offers delivery of 100-gram and 1-kilogram gold bars and 1-kilogram silver bars. To learn more, please visit:
http://www.goldmoney.com/?gmrefcode=gata
But only a few kilograms trickled in over the last two months as banks showed little interest in popularizing the scheme because of negligible returns for them.
Now the government has decided to pay the participating banks a total commission of 2.5 percent, including 1.5 percent handling charges, for the first year, the RBI said in a statement late Thursday.
Support from banks is crucial to the success of the scheme. Similar programmes in the past have failed as they were not profitable for the banks.
Under the current scheme, citizens are encouraged to deposit jewellery, bars, or coins with banks so it can be refined to meet fresh demand and cut the need for imports.
The consumer would earn interest and, at the end of the deposit term, get the gold back in the form of bars.
But the public response has been lacklustre. Indians' penchant for bullion spans centuries and they would not part with their gold, which is seen as providing financial security, unless they were offered incentives such as higher interest rates.
Banks were saying they could not offer attractive rates unless the government compensated them for the loss from higher rates.
... For the remainder of the report:
http://in.reuters.com/article/india-gold-idINKCN0UZ2O2
* * *
Join GATA here:
Vancouver Resource Investment Conference
Vancouver Convention Centre West
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Sunday-Monday, January 24-25, 2016
http://cambridgehouse.com/event/49/vancouver-resource-investment-confere...
Support GATA by purchasing recordings of the proceedings of the 2014 New Orleans Investment Conference:
https://jeffersoncompanies.com/landing/2014-av-powell
Or by purchasing DVDs of GATA's London conference in August 2011 or GATA's Dawson City conference in August 2006:
http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html
Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt:
Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009:
http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal
Help keep GATA going
GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:
To contribute to GATA, please visit:
