Gold monetization programme to reduce reliance on gold imports by encouraging households to monetize their gold

Government of India has launched Gold Monetisation Scheme (GMS) 2015, Sovereign Gold Bond (SGB) Scheme and Indian Gold Coin (IGC) on 5h November, 2015. The detailed guidelines of the Gold Monetisation Scheme are available vide RBI's Master Direction No. DBR.IBD.No.45l23.67.003/2015-16 dated October 22, 2OL5, which is available on RBI'S website. The detailed guidelines of the Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme are available vide Government of India Gazette Notification F.No. 4(25)-W&M/2017 dated6 October, 2O17. The Indian Gold Coin is the country's first national gold coin of 24 carat purity with 999 fitness which is minted indigenously. It has the Ashok Chakra engraved on one side and face of Mahatma Gandhi ji on the other.

The Government receives representations from various organizations and individuals with suggestions to improve the schemes. These are taken note and necessary changes made from time to time based on the review of the schemes.

The Gold Monetisation scheme does not provide tax amnesty, As per the guidelines Issued by the Government on Gold Monetization Scheme which are available on the website of Ministry of Finance, tax exemptions, same as those available under the earller Gold Deposit scheme (GDS), would be made available to the customers, as applicable.

The objective of the Gold Monetisation scheme is to mobilize the gold held by households and institutions in the country to put this gold into productive use and in the long run to reduce the current account deficit by reducing the country’s reliance on the imports of gold to meet the domestic demand.

 As per World Gold Council's yearly data for 2017, India is the second largest consumer of Gold behind China.

This was stated by Shri P. Radhakrishnan, Minister of State for Finance in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today