The 200-year-old Shree Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai has said it will deposit a portion of its gold hoard with a bank by the end of the month for recycling, responding to a government campaign to monetise some of the country’s thousands of tonnes of privately owned stocks of gold and cut costly imports.
The temple is now examining various proposals and will soon choose a bank to deposit 44 kg out of its total stash of 160 kg of gold, reports quoted a senior official at the trust that manages it as telling the press.
India’s economic affairs secretary, Shaktikanta Das, said after Friday’s meeting that temple trusts have started expressing an interest in the monetisation scheme but did not name any.
Apart from monetisation, last year Prime Minister Narendra Modi also launched a gold bond programme to soften demand for physical gold.
Indians are reported to be holding on to an estimated pool of 20,000 tonnes in family chests, bank vaults and in temples, even as the country continues to import as much as 1,000 tonnes annually, only second to China’s.
