RBI tweaks Gold Monetisation Scheme
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has made changes with the Gold Monetisation Scheme (GMS) to allow charitable institutions, central government entities and state government entities to deposit gold under GMS.
Now the entities allowed to deposit gold under the scheme include Resident Indians [Individuals, HUFs, Proprietorship & Partnership firms, Trusts including Mutual Funds/Exchange Traded Funds registered under SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations, Companies, charitable institutions, Central Government, State Government or any other entity owned by Central Government or State Government].
Why the ambit to deposit gold under the scheme was expanded?
The reasons for expanding the ambit are:
- To bring out the unaccounted gold with the charitable institutions.
- To enable the government agencies to deposit gold which they had confiscated.
Gold Monetisation Scheme
The Gold Monetisation Scheme was launched with the tagline Earn, while you secure. The scheme provides the dual benefit of, interest (denominated in gold) on the gold deposited and an option of encashing the gold at maturity. All the scheduled commercial banks except the RRBs are authorised to implement the scheme.
The gold deposits can be made under 3 term deposit plans:
- Short term:1 to 3 years
- Medium term:5 to 7 years
- Long term:12 to 15 years
Short-term deposit rates are decided by the banks concerned, while the medium and long-term deposit interest rates are decided by the Central Government.
The minimum deposit one can make in a gold monetisation scheme is 30 grams of any purity and there is no maximum limit. The capital gains from the scheme are exempted from capital gains tax, wealth tax and income tax.
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Month: Current Affairs - January, 2019