Commodity brokers have asked the government to increase the number of centres handling the Gold Monetisation Scheme to 3,500 from the present 350.
They also suggested that the interest rate for the scheme should be fixed at a moderate level.
A delegation from the Commodity Participants Association of India, an organisation of commodity brokers of the national commodities exchanges registered with the Forward Markets Commission, met Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday to suggest ways to improve the Gold Monetisation Scheme.
The scheme was announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in this year’s Budget to allow depositors of gold to earn interest on their metal accounts and jewellers to obtain loans on their metal accounts.
“The delegation requested that the interest rate for the scheme should be decided in a manner that it is neither very high nor very low. It wanted the centres handling the scheme to be increased to 3,500,” an official release said.
Sitharaman said that the suggestions made by the delegation will be discussed with various stake holders.
Stocks of gold in India are estimated at over 20,000 tonnes but most of it is neither traded, nor monetised.