GMS 2.0: Banks' participation key to success

The scheme's inability to convince big players like temples has to be sorted on a war footing

After three years of launching the Gold Monetisation Scheme (GMS), the central government is planning to rehaul the entire scheme to attract physical gold hoarders. The reason: The scheme has collected less than 20 tonnes. To put the number in perspective, two years back, the World Gold Council had estimated that Indian households held as much as 24,000 tonnes of gold.

Banks have been the main culprit in this fiasco. That is, 14 banks have indeed signed tripartite agreements with seven refineries and 47 hallmarking centres to run the scheme. However, they have not returned signed agreements with the respective