Has collected 6,000 kg of gold till Feb

New Delhi, Mar 9 (PTI): The government is aiming to collect around 8,000 kilogram gold by July under the gold monetisation scheme, a top government official said on Wednesday.

“We have collected around 6,000 kg of gold till February, and are expecting to collect another 2,000 kg till July,” the official said.

At initial stage, the scheme moved at slow pace on lack of coordination between the banks and collection and purity testing centres (CPTC). “If we compare the current gold figures with the last year, it has been a good success,” the official said.

MMTC is likely to auction the medium-and-long-term gold deposits collected under the gold monetisation scheme.

“The government will finalise the auctioning procedure in a day or two, and will ask MMTC to notify the same,” the official said.

The government will also decide the logistics of auctioning procedure, and credit of proceedings in the government account with the Reserve Bank of India, the official added.

The government will also decide the rate of commission and handling charges to be offered to the banks as the existing instructions were applicable only till November 5, 2016. The government in November 2015 had introduced Gold Monetisation Scheme to bring to the economic system around 20,000-22,000 tonnes of gold held with households and temples.

Till November 2016, the government had mobilised around 5,730 kg of gold under the scheme, wherein depositors of gold can earn interest on their metal accounts. Once the gold is deposited in metal account, it will start earning interest on the same.

The scheme was aimed at weaning Indians away from gold. The demand for yellow metal fell in the wake of demonetisation but picked up again and according to World Gold Council’s latest report on March 8, the demand is likely to improve further. According to survey research by WGC, 73 respondents in India said gold made them feel secure in the long run.