look news india
New Delhi, 26 August (HS). The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released the redemption calendar ahead of schedule for sovereign gold bonds issued between May 2017 and March 2020. The redemption of 30 installments of sovereign gold bonds between May 2017 and March 2020 will be done by RBI between October 11 this year and March 01, 2025.
According to the guidelines issued by RBI, investors investing in Sovereign Gold Bond can apply for redemption after 5 years from the issue date of the bond. Investors can apply for redemption through NSDL, CDSL, SGB Receiving Offices and RBI Retail Direct. Let us tell you that Sovereign Gold Bond was last issued in February this year. After February 2024, no new installment of SGB has been issued yet. It is believed that the Central Government can also close the Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme.
This scheme was started in November 2015. At that time, it was started with the intention of reducing gold imports, so that investors can invest in paper gold instead of buying spot gold. Under this, the Reserve Bank of India used to issue gold bonds on behalf of the Government of India. Under this scheme, investors were given guaranteed interest at the rate of 2.5%. Along with this, after the maturity period of 8 years, investors could get back the money according to the market price of gold.
In November 2015, under the first installment of Sovereign Gold Bond, investors got the opportunity to invest at the rate of Rs 2,684 per gram. Retail investors could invest in paper gold ranging from one gram to a maximum of 4 kg under this bond. The first installment of Sovereign Gold Bond matured in 2023. After maturity, investors were given a redemption price of Rs 6,132 per gram. In this way, investors made a profit of Rs 3,448 per gram i.e. 128.5 percent.
It is being told that the central government is now considering to close the Sovereign Gold Bond considering it expensive and complicated. In the interim budget presented in February, it was told that the dues of the investors of Sovereign Gold Bond have increased to the level of Rs 85 thousand crore, whereas in March 2020 the dues of the investors were only Rs 10 thousand crore. In such a situation, even though this bond may be a profitable deal for the investors, the burden on the treasury of the central government is continuously increasing due to this. It is believed that for this reason the government has started considering to close this scheme even before the completion of 10 years.
