RBI Deputy Governor H K Khan on Friday expressed the hope that a part of huge remittance inflows would be diverted to recently launched i
nflation indexed bonds (IIBs), and not in gold or realty.
IIBs will be able to diversify the investor base of bond market in the country, said Khan, while speaking at the launch of an online platform developed by IDBI Bank that enables retail investors and general public to invest in the IIBs.
M S Raghavan, newly appointed IDBI Bank Chairman and Managing Director, said the facility, available on IDBI's 'Samridhi' portal, will also be accessible from any phone.
State-run IDBI Bank is amongst the few players to launch the IIBs targeting retail customers.
On June 4, the government launched the first tranche of the 10-year IIBs which was oversubscribed by more than four times, though only bids worth Rs 1,000 crore were accepted.
As per the RBI, which auctioned the '10 years inflation indexed government stock, 2023', there were 167 competitive bids worth Rs 4,616 crore of which only 26, amounting to Rs 985.94 crore, were accepted.
The IIBs are designed to allow investors to guard their savings against inflation and dissuade them from buying gold.
The IIBs will be issued on last Tuesday of every month.
These bonds would form part of the government's borrowing programme for the first half of the current fiscal.
In May, the government had announced plans to issue IIBs with 10 years maturity worth Rs 12,000-15,000 crore during FY14.
While the first series of the bonds was open for all class of investors, the second issue beginning October will be reserved for retail investors.
Both the government as well as RBI is concerned over the rising gold import which is putting pressure on current account deficit, which touched 4.8 per cent of GDP last fiscal.
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