In a letter to the then Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram
Rajan on July 26, 2014, the India Bullion and Jewellers Association
(IBJA) had accused the previous UPA government of “deliberately yielding
to the cronies” by changing the gold policy days before demitting
office.
A decision was taken on May 21, 2014, five days before the
UPA government officially demitted office, allowed 13 'star trading
houses (STH)' and 'premier trading houses (PTH)’ including Choksi-led
Gitanjali Gems to import gold and sell about 80 percent of their total
bullion shipment in local markets under the so-called 80:20 scheme.
IBJA said that the RBI circular on May 21, 2014 had “sidestepped
nationalised banks, which have been the backbone support of our bullion
importing and jewellery exporting members by allowing certain private
sector export houses to import gold up to two tonnes at one time, even
for those who are not in the business of bullion and gold jewellery”.
The
association also asked Rajan to “make a prudent appraisal” of the
decision and “check the loopholes before it was too late,” in a
prescient warning about the looming crisis that has now come to light
after a raft of evidence regarding the celebrity diamond trader’s
alleged defrauding of Punjab National Bank (PNB) of more than Rs 12,000
crore through fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoU).
“Certain
private players who were calling the shots in the domestic bullion
market in the pre-80:20 era had considerably lost the lucrative trader
volumes and had been lobbying hard since the scheme was introduced,”
IBJA said in the letter that Moneycontrol has reviewed.
“Having
achieved the targetted current account deficit (CAD) level, the outgoing
government did not care for future sustenance of the CAD and
deliberately yielded to the cronies by effecting last minute changes in
the gold policy,” the letter said.
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Keywords: Gitanjaligems,Choksi,Niravmodi,P.Chidambaram,Raghuram Rajan,PNB scam,Bullion CAG,whats happening in Indian stock market,
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