Plea to frame gold loan guidelines

CHENNAI: A writ plea has been made in the Madras High Court for a direction to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to frame appropriate rules for pledging jewellery in banks for loans with regard to ownership/title of the jewels and payment of tax.The First Bench comprising Chief Justice MY Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam, before which the public interest writ petition from advocate and economist G Annadurai of Ambattur came up for hearing today, posted the matter for further hearing after a week. According to the petitioner, there were no rules and regulations prescribed by the RBI with regard to pledging of jewels with banks for loans. It encouraged black money and tax evation running to several thousand crores. This badly affected the economy of the country and led to price rise of many essential commodities, petitioner contended.