Jewellers in India are keen to participate in promoting the government’s gold monetization scheme, announced in this year’s budget, reports say. They are requesting the Indian government to allow them to be a part of this along with banks and other agencies.

The scheme encourages people to deposit the idle gold lying with them and earn interest on it when they deposit it with banks. From the industry stand point it encourages supply of gold in the domestic market and reduces the industry’s dependency on gold imports for supply.

Although, the government seems to be leaning more towards banks to make this scheme a success, discussions will be held with the industry and the government on the matter, reports say. To further encourage people to come forth with their idle gold, jewellers also propose that bank’s increase the gold deposit rate from the current 1.2 percent to 3 percent, reports say. The idle gold with the people of India is estimated at around 20,000 tonnes. In the Budget, the Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley noted that the operational aspects of the scheme should be investor friendly, as per reports. The gem and jewellery industry notes that the scheme should also involve refiners, reports say.