MUMBAI: Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das said the decision to bring in 100 tonnes of gold was made because the quantum of gold outside the country had gone up due to RBI’s purchase. Part of the gold was decided to be held within the country as there was storage capacity available.
“The quantum of gold held by RBI was static for a long time.As data shows, RBI was buying gold as part of its reserves management, and the quantum of gold held outside was going up. We have domestic capacity, and we felt part of the gold should be stored within the country. There is nothing more to it,” said Das.
On whether RBI was following recommendation of the Rangarajan committee on balance of payments in 1993, which said at least a fourth of the gold reserves should be held overseas, Das said, “A lot of water has flown down the Ganges since 1993, we have a high-level committee which takes care of all this.”
TOI was the first to report, on 31 May 2024, that RBI had moved 100 tonnes of gold from UK to its vaults in India. Now, around half the gold is in vaults within the country. Das expressed surprise that only one media house had picked up the information, although the half-yearly data on gold reserves referenced the quantum of gold held within and offshore. “I was expecting the media to pick up the end-September 2023 data, but nobody picked it up. We were really surprised when nobody noticed the March data. RBI annual report contained this data, and one media house (TOI) picked it up,” said Das.