Over the past 4-5 years the government of India has attempted several ways to learn more about or get their hands on the gold the citizens hold. It is estimated the citizens of India hold in the neighborhood of 25,000 TONS gold. With the top ten countries combined gold holdings totaling somewhere close to 23,500 tons this could actually be viewed as a threat, since gold is now classified as money.
The government of India attempted to get people to turn in their gold, I mean swap their gold for a “gold bond” that paid interest! I say attempted because as Jeff Nielson pointed out in 2015 India’s gold-theft scheme a SPECTACULAR failure. As the government attempted to raise import and duty taxes failed miserably so did this “gold bond” scheme.
Then we fast forward to 2018 when President Modi decided it was time to address corruption and black market cash. One morning President Modi woke up and told the citizens of India the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 bank notes, the prolific notes in circulation, were no longer of any value and had been replace with a brand new shiny note. The people were ordered to turn in their cash, at the nearest bank, and receive the new bank note. Only one catch, you had to have a bank account, which most of India did not.
As people attempted to exchange their notes ATM Machines Running Out of Cash All Across India and this is when people, literally, began dying as they stood in line for days. This situation is still very, very fresh in the minds of the people of India.
Just this week India’s is, once again, attempting to into the gold coffers within the citizens homes. Once again, they will fail. The details of this latest scheme, and it is, once again, called a scheme by the government, is to have the citizens disclose how much gold they possess and the government will then tell them how much tax they owe based on the volume of gold they possess. Two things that have not been announced – the threshold as to how much gold will not be taxed and, most importantly, how much the tax will be!! In other words, tell us how much gold you own and we will then determine your tax rate. It is also unclear if there will be any confiscation of gold going on with this scheme – and as vague as this whole thing is at this point – it wouldn’t surprise me in the least.
The good news is the people of India have a very healthy distrust of the government and will probably ignore this latest scheme. They keep trying and trying – and failing and failing to get the gold, or even the amount of gold, the people of India hold. We pray that it remains this way.
