By Rajendra Jadhav Reuters Saturday, March 11, 2017
MUMBAI -- India's ambitious plan to recycle thousands of tonnes of gold lying idle in temples and households looks to have foundered on concerns over high costs and slight returns, in a blow to government hopes of cutting imports of the metal.
After 16 months temples and households have turned over just 7 tonnes of gold out of the 24,000 tonnes believed to be in private hands, two industry sources and a government official said, with almost all the gold coming from temples.
Families that hold about 80 percent of the idle gold have largely shunned the scheme, with some four dozen government-approved centers that opened to test purity still to process a single gram of household gold, said Harshad Ajmera, president of the Indian Association of Hallmarking Centres.
"You hardly earn anything but you have to do so many things to deposit gold under the scheme. Why should I take all this pain?" said 54-year-old clerk Ganpat Shelke, who considered depositing 50 grams of gold. ...
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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-gold-idUSKBN16J02D
