Plan to tap India's gold hoard falls short: refiner

Mumbai

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi's draft plan to tap India's gold hoard and cut its reliance on imports needs more work to get banks involved, according to the chief of the country's biggest refiner.

An estimated 20,000 tonnes or more of bullion is stashed in India's homes and temples, even as imports surge due to low prices. The government hopes that getting citizens to lend their gold to banks is one way to redress the influx and improve the trade balance of the world's biggest buyer of the metal after China.