Govt fixes sovereign gold bond rate at Rs 3,146/gram

The government has fixed the price at Rs 3,146 per gram for the new series of sovereign gold bonds (SGBs) opening Monday.

The Government of India in consultation with the RBI has decided to allow a discount of Rs 50 per gram from the issue price to those investors who apply online and the payment is made through digital mode, a Finance Ministry statement said.

For such investors the issue price of Gold Bond will be Rs 3,096 per gram of gold, it said.

The Sovereign Gold Bonds would be issued every month from October 2018 to February 2019 as per the calendar specified, the RBI had said in a release earlier this week.

The bonds would be sold through banks, Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited (SHCIL), designated post offices, and stock exchanges -- National Stock Exchange and BSE.

The first tranche of the scheme would be open for subscription from October 15-19 and the bonds would be issued on October 23.

The next tranche would be open from November 5-9 and issuance would be on November 13. The next one would be available for subscription from December 24-28 and the bonds would be issued on January 1, 2019.

Another tranche would open for subscription from January 14-18 and the issuance of bonds would be on January 22. The final one would be from February 4-8 and bonds would be issued on February 12.

The sovereign gold bond scheme was launched in November 2015 with an objective to reduce the demand for physical gold and shift a part of the domestic savings -- used for the purchase of gold -- into financial savings.

Under the scheme, the bonds are denominated in units of one gram of gold and multiples thereof. Minimum investment in the bonds is one gram with a maximum limit of subscription of 500 grams per person per fiscal year.

The maximum limit of subscription is 4 kg for individual and HUF and 20 kg for trusts and similar entities per fiscal (April-March).