•   The Government’s gold auction policy was aimed at Checking of smuggling and reducing the budgetary deficit of the Central Government. Hence, option a is correct.

•   A number of amendments have been done in the existing revamped Gold Deposit Scheme, revamped Gold Metal Loan Scheme and India Gold Coin Scheme.

•   The existing scheme will be made far from attractive from investment convenience and taxation aspects.

There are various gold related schemes at present- 

GMS , which modified the then existing ‘Gold Deposit Scheme’ (GDS) and ‘Gold Metal Loan Scheme (GML), was launched in 2015 to mobilise gold held by households and institutions of the country and facilitate its use for productive purposes, and in the long run, to reduce country’s reliance on the import of gold.

•   Deposit limit: The minimum deposit at any one time shall be raw gold (bars, coins, jewellery excluding stones and other metals) equivalent to 30 grams of gold. There is no maximum limit for deposit under the scheme.

•   Proposed Changes in the existing scheme: The minimum requirement of 30 grams could be reduced to 1 gram. Interest earnings and capital gains under the scheme will continue to be exempt from capital gains tax, wealth tax and income tax.

•   It seeks to exchange people to buy gold bonds instead of actual gold.

•   The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issues these bonds on behalf of the central government.