This refers to a committee of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) having recommended for setting up of a e-gold registry to record every sale-purchase of gold for having an effective check on investment of unaccounted money in gold where total about 11-percent of total assets of countrymen is in form of gold as compared to just .4 percent in China. Committee has also rightly recommended for compulsion of PAN card on every purchase of gold which is presently necessary for gold-purchase exceeding rupees two lakhs. With no check on cash-withdrawal, private sellers of gold issue cash-invoices multiples of the amount allowable for making cash-purchases of gold.
To avoid such and common malpractice of private importers of gold, all import of gold should only be through banks only. Then concept of Know-Your-Customer (KYC) can also be applied for all those purchasing gold in any form with sellers required to submit copies of such specially designed KYC-gold on demand to excise-department or some other regulatory body. Gold-jewellery for sale in India should be of maximum 14-carrots.
Madhu Agrawal
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
