Gold refiner MMTC-PAMP is ready with a gold metal account scheme. The scheme can mobilise gold from small consumers, who account for a significant share of demand.
The Union budget 2015 announced measures to address the issue of tapping into an estimated 20,000 tonnes of gold in the system to help meet the Indian consumers’ huge appetite for gold.
“We have been advocating such a scheme for a while,’’ MMTC-PAMP India Managing Director Rajesh Khosla said.
MMTC-PAMP is a joint venture between MMTC and Switzerland’s PAMP, SA, with a Rs.200-crore gold refinery near Delhi and a capacity of 150 tonnes.
“There is the lack of an enabler to verify gold purity, to store gold on behalf of the institutions and to deliver the physical gold to the jeweller. That is where we could come in,’’ he said.
The company’s proposed scheme envisages a minimum gold deposit of 50 grams, fitting the profile of more than 90 per cent of India’s gold consumers. “It would help consumers deposit gold and earn interest on it, with the account accruing gold instead of rupees,’’ Mr. Khosla said. We developed dedicated software though the issue is not of technology but of having an end-to-end system in place.”
While jewellers have been bemoaning the 10 per cent import duty on gold as an ‘unwanted incentive for smuggling’, he said “the big game changer to tackle smuggling is the proposed move mandating PAN card verification for all transactions above Rs.1 lakh.”
