Effective Gold Monetisation Schemes – The future for the Bullion Industry

Sept. 3, 2014 - PRLog -- The recent developments on the Bullion front have left a lot of scope for an effective and structured policy to ensure that the 20,000 tonnes of gold that is owned by the citizens of India is monetized in the near future. An effective Gold Monetization Scheme, backed by a strong government, will ensure that the Bullion industry has ample supply of gold to conduct its business smoothly and at the same time eliminate the increasing trend of Gold Smuggling which has touched almost 200 tonnes in FY 2014 itself.

The initiative taken by the Finance Ministry has further strengthened the impetus gained by the demand for such a scheme as a long term solution to the increasing demand for Gold by the increasing middle class citizenry of our country. At the 11^th India International Gold Convention to be held in Pune from the 12^th of September to the 14^th of September, the issue will be discussed in detail by industry experts and government representatives to reach a consensus on the best way forward.

The India International Gold Convention will also delve on topics such as -

Movement of gold (standard, jewellery, dore & scrap) within India : opportunity and challenges
Learning from Chinese experience of securing dore
Special session on gold saving scheme
Changing global bullion market landscape and the relevance of India
Roadmap for India Bullion Industry for the next 10 years
Engaging with partners - What can overseas partner offer and what do they want from India?
Representation to the government
Market , products & portfolio – New paradigm and new opportunity
Price outlook on gold and silver

Speaking at a conference held to announce the details of the convention G Srivatsava, President of Foretell Business Solutionssaid, “The cumulative effect of high tariff and quantitative restrictions has been very effective from government point of view. Official gold imports reduced by over 30%; CAD stabilised under 2%. The strong policy stance of government was needed as a short term solution in August 2013. However, it may not be the desirable policy for medium or long term.”

Rajesh Khosla, Managing Director of MMTC PAMP emphasized on plugging the gap between demand and supply of gold in India. About gold schemes he said, “The gold schemes need to be tailored to suit the requirements of end consumers. The success of the schemes would be when the awareness and popularity of metal accounts will be as good as bank accounts and treated as currency.”

Pradeep Nagori, Associate Director, Edelweiss Metals Limited said, “The real problem is gold being preferred asset class with individuals and across households. Even temple trusts have tons of dead investment in the form of gold. One has to churn it and unlock the value. Even if a temple trust wants to monetize it, they don’t have proper hedging mechanism to do that.”

P K Singhal, Joint Managing Director, MCX said, “Last year has been a challenging year. The impact cost was Rs. 1.50 compared to Rs. 3.00 for CME – the most liquid commodity exchange in the world. It was an advantage. But after the imposition of CTT and stamp duty, the transaction cost increased. Even MCX slipped to sixth slot in global commex rankings, in terms of commodity futures contracts traded last year.”