Seeking to unfreeze idle gold, the RBI today made the gold deposit scheme of banks more attractive by lowering the investment time period and allowing mutual funds to participate in the scheme.
“It had now been decided to change the maturity period, of gold deposit schemes, ranging from six months to seven years,” the RBI said in a circular.
Earlier the maturity period for the said scheme was between three and seven years.
As per the estimates of an RBI committee, about 20,000 tonnes of idle gold is lying with the people.
The central bank wants to channel the idle gold for productive purposes and also check the demand for imports. Further, SEBI registered mutual funds and exchange traded funds may deposit under the scheme, the RBI said.
It further said the banks would not be required to obtain prior approval of the RBI for introducing the scheme.
However, they would be required to inform the details of the scheme, including name of branches operating the scheme, to the central bank.