Council demands tax benefits for gold investments

The World Gold Council (WGC) sees a greater role for gold as an investment instrument for the purpose of tax saving in India, a press release from the council said, quoting a senior official.

“There are a number of ways of accessing the investment benefits of gold and it is time that the Indian government started considering it for the provision of income tax benefits, at least for working women and for the bottom level in the income tax brackets,” Ajay Mitra, managing director, Indian sub continent, WGC was quoted in the release as saying.

In the light of the current global economic scenario, WGC sees renewed interest in investing in gold worldwide, the release said. In India too, the underlying appetite to invest in gold to protect wealth has shown signs of increasing, it said.

“Gold should play a more significant role in the sustainable growth of the Indian economy and WGC welcomes the increasing pressure on the government to enable this,” Mitra added.

The release said that post the 1992 reforms in India, there have been no major moves to further liberalise the gold investment market and hence there needs to be a change to the regulatory definition of gold in India.