Sachin Jain, Regional CEO, India, World Gold Council said,
”The gold industry is integral to the Indian economy, contributing 1.3% to Indian GDP and employs approx. 2-3mn people. In the current union budget, we are expecting their will be a general policy thrust aimed at higher economic growth that will provide tangible benefit for gold as well, as it is well established that income growth is the single dominant factor in long term gold demand. We expect continuation of pro-growth and pro-gold policy reforms including further ease of doing business that will aid the industry’s reform and organised growth.
Government is cognizance of the fact that gold prices have risen to historic highs of Rs 74,000/10gram and at present total taxes on gold is over 18% (including 15% of import duty) and such high taxes act as incentives for getting gold into the country from illicit routes impacting tax compliant industry stakeholders. Hence our advice would be significant reduction of import duty on gold from current highs of 15%.
Current industry estimates suggest that over 120 million customers have bought digital gold so far, with approximately ~ 40 million customers holding digital gold currently. There is a need to facilitate orderly growth of the digital gold market to protect and promote micro savings in gold through transparent digital gold channels and to deter any unscrupulous fly-by-night operators from misusing the emerging opportunity.
It is also necessary to enable people to get used to gold savings in digital form safety and securely (first step to large scale monetisation of gold) and making gold savings productive. Government should consider bringing out appropriate guidelines and regulatory oversight that would introduce checks and balances to ensure customers of digital gold are protected and a transparent way to buy and hold gold digitally, aligned with the broader economic agenda on digitalisation of assets, is promoted.”
