Mumbai, Dec 10: Siddhivinayak temple is considering the idea of investing a portion of its gold reserves in the Gold Monetisation Scheme launched by the Centre.
The proposal will be discussed at a meeting of the temple board soon. If approved by the trustees, it would be submitted to the state government for clearance, temple officials said.
The temple has 160 kgs of Gold in its reserves right now, out of which 10 kg is already deposited with the State Bank of India at an annual interest of 1 per cent.
The temple in the heart of the city is visited by thousands of devotees many of whom make rich offerings to the the shrine including gold.
Normally, the temple conducts three to four rounds of auction of the ornaments. But despite periodical auctioning, but still it is left with some stock.
According to experts, the Trust, however, will have to follow certain procedures before taking a decision as the temple is governed under the Law and Judiciary department of the Maharashtra Government.
Notably, on November 5, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched three gold schemes — sovereign gold bonds, monetisation and gold coin scheme with a view to discourage physical possession or dealings in the bullion thereby bringing down the import of the yellow metal which last year stood at 1,000 tonnnes.
