MADRAS (PTI): The Federal government’s gold bond scheme has cumulatively yielded a little over 16, 60 lakh grams of gold from this southern Mega polis alone.
Official sources said that a record 3.30 lakh grams of gold had been offered in 322 bids at the Madras RBI office by subscribers on the closing day June 14.
The largest subscription of the yellow metal in all the centers on the last day was typical of the Indian psychology of waiting till the last day, the sources said.
The scheme was unlikely to be extended further as demanded from many quarters, they said.
Subscriptions under the scheme, floated on March 15 this year, were accepted only in the form of gold biscuits and even in case of ornaments; they had 10 be melted after removing any stones inlaid, to qualify for subscription.
The minimum limit of subscription was pegged at 500 gm with no upper limit.
After the gold received under the scheme is assayed (refined) by the government mint, the gold bonds will be issued by the RBI’s respective offices, “Indicating weight of the gold of 0.995 fineness as determined by the government mint and rounded to the nearest lower whole gram,” they said.
The bonds to bear a Jump sum interest will be repaid in the form of gold five years after the date of issue.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 25, 1993
