Sovereign Gold Bond scheme launch postponed to Nov 30

The delay is to enable the smooth uploading of applications into RBI's e-Kuber system

The launch of gold bonds, as part of the Sovereign Gold Bond scheme, has been postponed to November 30 from November 26, the finance ministry said on Wednesday.

“A large number of applications have been received by the banks and post offices for Sovereign Gold Bonds, 2015-16. To enable the smooth uploading of applications into RBI’s e-Kuber system, particularly by the post offices, it has since been decided to shift the issue date of the sovereign gold bonds from November 26, 2015 to November 30, 2015,” it said.

The e-Kuber system is one of the core banking solutions of the Reserve Bank of India, which ensures an integrated payment and receipt mechanism. Two weeks after various gold schemes were launched, only 400 gm gold has been deposited and that too with only one bank, because no other bank had tri-partite agreements with hallmarking centres and gold refiners.

In contrast, the response to gold bonds and gold coins has been much better. Retail investors have applied for Rs 100 crore worth of bonds and Rs 6,000 gold coins have been sold.