Indians have 35,000 tonnes of gold in homes and temples! Modi government is after it
Suspense Crime, Digital Desk : Some estimate puts the gold holding in Indian homes and temples to be between 30,000 and 35,000 tonnes. This amounts to about 3.8 trillion US dollars or lakhs of crores of rupees. What's amazing is that most of this gold sits idle in drawers and cupboards, gathering dust for years.
To tackle the twin issues, the Prime Minister has now appealed to people of the country. He has asked the people of India to make use of the old and unused gold rather than depending on importing new gold from abroad. In essence, he has asked the public to utilize the existing gold in the country before sourcing gold from abroad. Although this sounds so simple, the mathematics behind it is huge.
What is gold recycling
Now you might be thinking what gold recycling exactly is. In very simple terms, just like we have old newspapers getting recycled to produce new paper; similarly old gold, broken jewelry, coins or even old electronic gadgets like telephones and computers are collected, melted and converted into pure 24 Carat Gold.
This gold can then be used to make new jewelry designs or can be converted into gold bars. This concept also helps in preserving nature as it requires less labor and energy to get gold by recycling than by digging the yellow metal from the earth.
Why is the Modi Government After It
Basically, the government is after this to ease the country's financial burden. India relies on importing its demand of gold from foreign countries. Only last year, India sent 72 billion dollars or lakhs of crores of rupees outside the country to buy gold. And when we sent so much money outside the country then the economy takes a hit.
The government is trying to convince the people of India to utilize their old and unused gold from home rather than importing it from outside. So that the money stays in India and we don't depend on other people. It is for this reason that the government has also been promoting "Gold Monetization Scheme" and has also been teaching people about it.
One Percent Magic; Rs Lakhs Crores to Be Saved annually by way of Import bill
What makes this whole story interesting is that we don't have to do a lot. Just by recycling 1% of all the gold held by Indian households and temples could save on gold imports worth 25 to 30%. This translates into a saving of lakhs of crores of rupees annually.
So why the gold is left unused
The main reason for this lies in our mindset and our tradition. We always think of gold as our best friend in need. Keeping gold has been a tradition since our grandmothers times. And disposing gold is seen as unholy, thus, the old and unused jewelry remains tucked in safety boxes. But the era has now changed and prices have been touching the sky; old gold, lying idle in your safeboxes can actually be used for your dream.
Mindset is now Changing
Most of the goldmiths, and even major companies are now willing to exchange your old jewelry into newer designs; in fact earlier there used to be a steep discount for old jewelry but now most of the time even with no discounts, customers get a new jewelry.
