KOLKATA: MMTC plans to sell sovereign gold coins to non-resident Indians through branches of Indian banks with which it has tied-ups. The state-run agency has tie-ups with seven banks — ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Vijaya Bank, Federal Bank, Yes Bank and Andhra Bank — for distribution of sovereign gold coins.
MMTC has initially identified South Africa, the UK, Middle East and Singapore as the target markets for distributing gold coins which carry Ashoka Chakra on one side and Mahatma Gandhi’s face on the other. The sovereign gold coin is available in 5 and 10 gm. It is also offering an Indian gold bar of 20 gm.
“The agreement with the banks say that they can distribute these sovereign gold coins anywhere in the world where they have a presence. South Africa is a major market for sovereign gold coins as the NRIs there can easily associate with them since it carries Gandhiji’s image,” said a senior MMTC official who is involved in distribution process. Incidentally, Gandhiji had spent 21 years in South Africa fighting for the rights of the Indians living there.
“Once we make some inroads in these overseas markets, we will move to USA where lot of NRIs reside,” the official said. MMTC is also taking help of its wholly-owned subsidiary — MMTC Transnational Pte in Singapore — to market these coins. “They are looking into the regulatory framework in different countries across the globe for marketing the sovereign gold coins,” the official said.
