India’s Gold Monetisation Scheme, aims to bring an estimated
22,000 tonnes of gold lying idle (estimated at $1 trillion) with households,
religious institutions and others into the financial system in return for a
regular interest payout and the market-linked appreciation value. The gold can
be deposited even in the jewellery form, but it gets melted and the value is
determined after testing its purity. The depositor can choose an option to get
back the gold at a later date in the equivalent of '995 fineness gold or Indian
rupees' as they desire, but not in the same form. All eyes are on their biggest
repositories - the temples.
Among various temples in Gujarat, the famous Ambaji temple
has ruled out depositing its gold for the scheme at present, while Somnath
temple has prepared a proposal in this regard and a final decision would be
taken by its trustees.
Dwarkadhish temple in Devbhumi Dwarka is yet to take a call,
but the chairman of the temple trust committee HK Patel said the scheme was
worth giving a thought.
The famous Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai also appears
interested in exploring the scheme as it is looking at options to utilise its
160 kg of gold reserves, out of which about 10 kg is already deposited with a
bank.
The high-level Investment Committee of Tirumala Tirupati
Devasthanams (TTD), which manages the world's richest Hindu temple of Sri
Venkateswara Swamy, will also meet soon to discuss the issue of depositing its
gold under this scheme.
Kanakadurgamma Temple in Vijayawada, the second richest
temple in Andhra Pradesh, however has no plans to participate in this scheme,
while neighbouring Telangana government has not taken any decision as yet on
participating in the Scheme.
For some temples, including Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in
Kerala and the Shirdi Sai Baba temple in Maharashtra, the ongoing court cases
are in the way of decisions about the matter.
World Socialism Party (India)
Email: wspindia@hotmail.com
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