New Delhi: The Commodity Participants Association of India (CPAI) on Monday asked the Indian Government to increase the gold purity testing centres from 350 at present to 3,500 under the Gold Monetization Scheme (GMS), reports Busines Standard.

It also suggested that the interest rate for the gold deposit scheme should be “decided in a manner that it is neither be very high nor very low”.

These recommendations were made by the association during a meeting with Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman here. The delegation met Sitharaman and gave suggestions for improving the Gold Monetization Scheme, an official statement said.

Seeking to mobilize gold held by households and institutions, the government last month released a draft scheme under which a person or entity can earn interest by depositing the metal with banks.

The Minster assured that the suggestions would be taken up during the stakeholders discussion on the scheme. The delegation also discussed plans for organizing several seminars based on the issues related to the Gold Monetization Scheme in various parts of the country.

India is one of the largest consumers of gold in the world and imports as much as 800-1,000 tonnes of the metal each year. The stock of gold in India, neither traded nor monetized, is estimated to be over 24,000 tonnes.

KW: