Senior officials from the Investment division of the Department of Economic Affairs of the Finance Ministry, Government of India, convened a meeting on March 9 2015, of various stakeholders to discuss the gold monetisation proposal put up in the Budget by Finance Minister Hon’ble Arun Jaitley.

Representatives of industry organisations like the GJEPC, GJF, FICCI, WGC, IBJA (Indian Bullion Jewellers Association); refiners and hallmarking and assaying bodies like BIS and MMTC-Pamp India; banking institutions including SBI and Bank of Nova Scotia; individual experts met with Addl Secretary Ajay Garg and Dr. Saurabh Garg, were invited to give their suggestion and attended the meet.

“It was essentially a brainstorming meeting to discuss the proposal and to work out models to implement it,” said Pankaj Parekh, Vice Chairman GJEPC, who represented the organisation at the meeting.

One of the main points discussed was who would be the collection agents for the scheme. 

Several industry bodies also expressed the opinion that for the scheme to work effectively, some form of voluntary disclosure needed to be put in place, else individuals would not be forthcoming to deposit their gold. 

“At this point the government is very firm that there will be no voluntary disclosure as part of the scheme,” commented Parekh. “However this was the first of a few meetings the Government plans to have and we will have further interactive discussions.”