‘Gold monetisation policy has no lustre, requires changes’

AHMEDABAD: The Centre’s gold monetisation policy has been unsuccessful due to lack of incentives to consumers and banks, and needs to be tweaked to make it popular, a research body of the IIM, Ahmedabad, said on Monday. IIM’S Indian Gold Policy Centre (IGPC) carried out a study on “Gold monetisation in India as a tranformative policy”, and suggested changes to achieve its intended goal.

“The gold monitisation policy, started by the Centre in 2015, expected around 1,500 tonnes of gold coming in mainstream system. However, so far only around 200 tonnes of gold (including gold bonds) have come in mainstream. To say the least the scheme has been unsuccessful,” Head of IGPC Professor Arvind Sahay said.

“A serious rethink is required about the scheme. It is needed to be tweaked so that more and more people get attracted towards it. Though the idea behind it is very noble, the present scheme lacks incentives for banks and consumers.”

In India, it is estimated that there is 25,000 tonnes of gold, of which only around 800 tonnes is with RBI and the rest is privately held, Sahay said. India is the second-largest importer of the yellow metal, bringing in 800-900 tonnes every year from overseas.

“Most of this gold, when purchased, remains with the owner, and circulation of money stops, which is not good for the economy,” Sahay said. “The banks in India are struggling to promote products based on GMP and seek more control on the process to have a clear separation of risks or effective mitigation of risks relating to operationalisation of the policy.”

“Inadequate specialisation/ experience in quality management of gold and lack of sufficient incentive alignment have been pointed out as the main reasons why banks are not yet fully on board (for the scheme). Process issues such as turnaround time and logistics requirements also deter banks and refiners from taking up the policy,” he said. “Consumers consider gold as having more sentimental value than investment value. They are reluctant to part with gold, but in time of crisis they will go up to pledging gold.” “Rural consumers are more reluctant to part with gold as compared to urban consumers.”