NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) should consider floating bonds to tap into household gold reserves, Trade Minister Anand Sharma told television channel CNN-IBN on Thursday.
New Delhi has been looking for ways to tamp-down gold imports, which have widened the trade deficit and piled pressure on the rupee. The Indian rupee is the worst performing major currency since May.
"RBI (Reserve bank of India) in the past has come up with many such schemes, there have been three gold schemes in the past," he saidm without giving details of how such a plan would work in practice.
India turned the screw on gold buying earlier this month by hiking bullion import duty and banning imports of coins and medallions.
(Reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh)
