Govt to redeem gold bonds

NEW DELHI, February 7: The government today announced repayment arrangements for the gold bonds 1998 which were being redeemed. An official press release said that the gold bonds which wereÿissued through a notification on February 18, 1993 would be repayable from March 14 this year.

To facilitate payments, gold bars in denominations of ten, 50, 100 and 500 grams and gold discs of one, two and five grams,ÿall of 0.995 fineness have been manufactured by the government mint in Mumbai. They would bear national Ashoka pillar emblem, mint code, serial number and other details and repayment of the gold bonds would be madeÿin the highest denominations of gold bars or discs, it said.

The repayment of gold would be made by the offices of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and certain specified main branches of State Bank of India (SBI).

Along with repayment of these bonds, a lump sum interest for the period of five years would be paid on maturity at the rate of Rs 40 for each gram of gold.