The sovereign gold bond scheme offered at post offices is finding more investors over the past few years. Post offices across the State have received investment of nearly 10.23 kg for the second tranche of the scheme that opened this week.
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Launched as an alternative to physical gold, the scheme, offered along with the Reserve Bank of India, was opened for subscription from August 22 to August 26. Officials of the postal department said the RBI has fixed the issue price of gold bond at ₹5,197 per gram. “We offer sale of the gold bond for a five-day period whenever RBI announces the tranche and such details are available on their website too. In four days, post offices have received investment to the tune of nearly ₹5.32 crore and this is bound to increase further when sales closes on Friday,” said an official.
Coimbatore region has attracted maximum investment of nearly 3 kg of gold in the State in the current series followed by Chennai with sales of 2.9 kg of gold through the bond. There has been a steady rise in the investment towards the gold bond scheme in the post offices. For instance, the department had gained investment of nearly 244.8 kg of bond last year compared to nearly 172.4 kg gold invested in 2020-21 through the scheme across the State.
A revenue of nearly ₹2.92 crore has been earned as commission from subscription of the bonds since 2015. The revenue earned by the department last year alone crossed ₹1.18 crore through the sales of gold bond, officials said.
Many investors moved towards the scheme provided by the post offices due to assured annual interest rates of 2.5%, capital gain tax exemption and reliable savings option, officials added.