Finance minister announces gold monetisation scheme and a sovereign gold bond apart from steps to boost recycling of the metal
The Narendra Modi-led government on Saturday announced measures which could change the dynamics of India’s gold market. While presenting the Union Budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley encouraged people to sell gold and earn returns, rather than hoard it. In recent years, due to concerns over the country’s rising trade deficits, policymakers and the Reserve Bank of India had introduced steps to discourage imports of the yellow metal; the central bank was concerned that gold was a ‘dead investment’.