Cabinet approves Gold Monetisation Scheme and Gold Bonds

The Cabinet approved Gold Bond and Gold Monetisation schemes to reduce the India’s Gold demand and import and to put into use the precious metal with households across the country.The bonds are denominated in grams of gold, and will be available in a variety of amounts starting from 5 grams. The investment is simple to understand. Instead of buying 10 grams of gold as investment, you buy a 10 gram gold bond, which will be available from banks, post offices and other places. The minimum tenure of the bond is not yet set, but is likely to be five years.After five years, you redeem the bond and get whatever is the value of 10 grams of gold. The difference is that you will also get an additional interest amount, over and above the gold value. Moreover, the Department of Revenue has agreed to amend the Income-Tax (I-T) Act so that buying and selling these bonds will have exactly the same tax treatment as physical gold.