The government’s Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme has received an “excellent response,” Economic Affairs Secretary, Shaktikanta Das, said after the Finance Ministry decided to postpone the date of issuance citing a large number of applications.
“Gold Bond Scheme: 63000 applications for 917 kgs gold amounting to Rs 246 cr in first tranche. Excellent response for an innovative product,” according to a tweet from Mr. Das.
The Ministry of Finance had on Wednesday decided to shift the issue date of the Sovereign Gold Bonds to November 30 from the earlier date of November 26.
The response to the Gold Bonds Scheme comes at a time when one of the other gold-related schemes launched by the government — the Gold Deposit Scheme — has met a very poor response from the public. Industry officials have said that the gold deposit scheme has so far attracted only 400 grams of the yellow metal, a fraction of the estimated 20,000 tonnes in the country.
Under the Gold Bond Scheme, the government will issue bonds in lieu of the purchase of actual gold. While the scheme document recommends an indicative interest rate of two per cent, the actual rate will be determined by the market.
The window for applications for the first tranche of bonds, on which Mr Das was commenting in his tweet, was open from November 5 to November 20. The dates for the second tranche have not been announced as yet.
