Worried over the flow of savings for investment in gold, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, on Saturday, said there was a need to spread financial literacy to encourage people to invest in market instruments.
Pointing out that India's gold import surged to $60-62 billion in last fiscal, the Minister regretted that people were investing in gold with the expectation that the value of their investment would appreciate.
Gold import
“The quantum of gold import ... is a clear indication (that) large section of community...want (to) investment in dead asset only with expectation that the value would appreciate,” he said while addressing an award function.
The Minister further said “time is ripe to motivate our educated upper middle-class to climb from saving mode to wealth generation mode.
“...My request to financial analysts and other experts and leaders in this field is to ensure than we can create confidence in market, spread financial literacy and merit of investment could be widely spread,” he said.
