Sovereign gold bonds worth 14 tonnes in six tranches

5.7 tonnes collected under gold monetisation scheme

As of 14th November, government has collected 5.73 tonnes of gold under the Gold Monetisation Scheme which was launched a year ago to mobilise idle gold lying with Indian households, finance ministry said today in parliament. However government has not clarified how much of this gold was deposited by temple trusts, how much by households and how much is renewal of gold deposited under previous scheme. 

Interestingly sovereign gold bond scheme has met with much bigger success and total six tranches of sovereign gold bonds were issued so far and total collection according to the government announcement today comes to 14.071 tonnes of gold worth bonds amounting to Rs 4,127 crore have been subscribed. 

A press note issued by the finance ministry said: "There are no firm statistics with the Government regarding the quantum and value of gold in possession of public and with private gold loan lending companies. However, as per estimate over 20,000 tonnes of gold is held by households, trusts and various institutions in India". 

However, latest estimates by the World Gold Council suggested gold with Indian households and temples will be around 24,000 tonnes.